Well mother nature continues to play hide and seek with spring.

Just when you thought we were going to turn that corner and see warmer weather, she rears up her ugly head and drops snow on us Sunday night.

Fortunately for our area sports teams it did not affect any of the weekend events.

But that does not mean the weather has not already played havoc with the spring sports schedules.

In fact, after talking to Niles softball coach Dale Myer Monday afternoon about the quick start the Vikings got off to, he mentioned that they have already filled the few open dates they had in their schedule with make-up games.

That does not bode well for the rest of the season.

We all know that there are still plenty of rainy days ahead in April and May.

At this point, I would not even rule out games being snowed out.

The bad thing about weather like this, especially early in the season, is that our teams need repetition in live action against real opponents.

You can only practice so much. You can only work on situations that may come up in a game so many times.

And it is tough to duplicate game speed and the strange things that happen on a diamond, a golf course, a soccer pitch or a track.

So, let us hope that the cold weather is behind us now and we can have enough dry days to get back into the groove of spring sports.

It is one of my favorite times of the year. I love being out in the fresh air, but trust me, when you get to be my age, the cold weather is no your friend.

Neither is it a friend to pitchers’ arms and runners’ muscles.

Come on Mother Nature, give us a break, and let us get outside and enjoy the things we love to do.

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com