NILES — Area athletic directors are doing their best to keep their heads above water this spring.

No pun intended.

It has been a very wet and cold spring in southwest Michigan, which has forced athletic departments to scramble to reschedule games and do their best to get their teams as many games as possible as the clock ticks down toward the beginning of the state tournaments.

While teams were able to squeeze a few games in during March, which is not normal, it has been a struggle to consistently play games and even hold practices because fields have been under water at times.

Brandywine athletic director Vance Stratton thinks things could be done in an attempt to make scheduling and playing games easier, but at what cost?

“By trying to make those arrangements for a spring that only happens once in a great while taxes the other springs that weather is decent,” he said. “We are running in to at this point, not so much our cancellations, but the canceling other programs have done. They now have to move our games to make up their conference games.”

Weather is not the only challenge athletic directors have to deal with in the spring.

“One of the hardest things to work around in a wet spring are all the other special school programs that go on such as band concerts, choir concerts, honors award nights, senior trips, etc,” Stratton said. “Each school is different, so what may work schedule-wise for one school won’t work for another cause their special programs are on different nights.”

Starting the season later and ending it further into June is probably not the correct answer either, according to Stratton.

“Pushing back the end of the season creates playing games well after seniors are out,” he said. “That presents problems. Starting earlier it is still too cold. That presents problems. The spring season is just unique. Some years it works, others we struggle.”

Niles athletic director Jeff Upton equates spring with the winter sports season.

“Certainly, the spring is very similar to the winter,” he said. “January and February were very challenging and this spring is also challenging. We are doing all we can do to play some games, but the fields are saturated, and a realistic number of baseball and softball games is now reduced to 25 to 30 instead of the maximum of 38. 

Upton said that Niles is not a unique situation by any means.

“Everyone is in the same situation,” he said, “Last week, Lakeshore, which has turf on its baseball and softball fields, only had four more games than Niles. That differential will grow, but it is about the athletes’ safety. Thunder and lightning affect both natural grass and turn games.”

There has been one sport this spring that has played, all or nearly all of its contests — soccer.

“Soccer is the only program that hasn’t had cancellations due to weather, but they played in some horrible conditions such as rain and sleet in April,” Upton said.

He also has become somewhat of an expert in reading the weather conditions.

“We do the best we can do with the weather we are given,” Upton said. “I believe now I am an amateur weatherman. Being responsible for a busload of athletes is quite a  responsibility. Parents need to know when we cancel games at noon. We are projecting the weather all the way through the bus’ return trip home, which many nights is 10 p.m. We have to err on the side of safety for our student-athletes.”

Dowagiac athletic director Brent Nate agrees with Stratton and Upton on a variety of their points and concerns.

He would like conferences to consider playing more single games in baseball due to the length of the games and the pitching rules that exist to protect the player’s arms.

“Obviously some years are better than others,” he said. “Being baseball specific, I would like to see them play a single game or even one nine-inning game instead of trying to squeeze doubleheaders in. Even on the best days, we struggled to get two games in due to their pace. That would allow us more flexibility in scheduling and provide opportunities to reschedule games if needed.

Nate said that typically, Dowagiac waits until around 1:30 p.m. to make its decisions on whether or not to play.

“The latest we can go is about 1:30 due to transportation concerns,” he said. “Yesterday, for example, I am over in Three Rivers and the golf teams are playing in a monsoon. I go over with the Three Rivers AD and check out the baseball and softball fields which had standing water all over the place, so we had to postpone the games.”