The weather has left its mark on high school sports this school year.
After a relatively smooth football season, the wintry weather wreaked havoc on the prep basketball postseason. It hasn’t been very kind to spring sports either.
First it was the several inches of ice that fell in mid-February, which resulted in widespread postponements throughout both the district and region basketball tournaments. A fresh blanketing of snow in early March even led to the TSSAA girls basketball state tournament being delayed for the first time since 1968.
“We went an entire week without practicing before the district championship,” said East Nashville boys basketball coach Jim Fey, whose 28-3 Eagles suffered a surprising 65-60 loss to Maplewood in the Region 5-AA tournament — a team the Eagles had previously beaten three times. “Bottom line is I think we got outplayed (by Maplewood), but it was tough, and I think (the weather) affected some things we did in terms of preparation and just being able to get back into a groove.”
Basketball season is finally in the rear view, but the spring sports are still feeling the effects from the recent pounding of precipitation in Middle Tennessee.
“It’s had an impact on everybody,” Overton baseball coach Mike Morrison said.
The regular season for spring sports officially got underway on March 9, but between a lack of preseason preparation and a slew of early-season, weather-related cancellations, it doesn’t quite feel like teams are three weeks in.
Last Thursday’s District 11-AAA soccer match between Brentwood and Centennial certainly didn’t.
The Bruins ultimately captured a one-goal win over the Cougars on senior John Pettit’s 72nd-minute penalty kick, but the early-season rust was definitely on display throughout the match, especially in the late stages as fatigue started to set in.
“Both teams were dead at the end of the game,” Brentwood coach Mike Purcell said. “You could tell that they were all cramping up, and it’s just a sign that they really haven’t gotten their legs yet.”
Soccer isn’t the only sport that has been affected, though. Softball and baseball coaches have also had to endure the lingering effects of the wintry weather, as well as the recent rain.
Morrison, whose Bobcats have been fortunate enough to not have a single regular-season game rained out, has still seen the effects from a lack of practice.
“From Day 1 of practice (Feb. 9) to the opening of the season you’ve got four weeks,” said Morrison. “We had 24 opportunities to practice or scrimmage, and we missed 10 or 11 of them. I think the aspect of the game that we’re most behind on is just hitting live pitching. We haven’t necessarily come out and swung it really great. We’ve pitched it OK and we’ve played defense OK, but I think the offensive side has really hurt us.”
For schools fortunate enough to have an indoor hitting facility, such as Friendship Christian, seeing live pitching hasn’t been as much of a problem. It also helped that the Lady Commanders headed south for their opening week of the season.
“We went to Gulf Shores, Ala., (for the Gulf Coast Classic),” Friendship Christian softball coach Jody Atwood said. “We were blessed with decent weather to be able to participate and play. When we came home, I understand a lot of people didn’t get a chance to play at all. We had six varsity games under our belt before a lot of people got a chance to play. Some of them only had two outdoor practices before they got the chance to play games.
“No doubt, it was definitely a blessing to go down and actually play some games in 60-degree weather.”
Reach Michael Murphy at 259-8018 and on Twitter @Murph_TNsports.
Ravenwood’s Sam Knickerbocker goes after the ball after knocking down Independence’s Daniel Robinson during a rain-soaked soccer match recently.
