Spring sports season off to a rocky start

The 2019 Lind-Ritzville/Sprague spring sports season is off to an ominous beginning, to say the least.

Frequent snow and consistently cold weather in the month of February have wreaked havoc on the LRS spring sports schedule, as practices officially got underway last week. But three school cancellations last week due to even more snow have made it almost impossible for the roughly 85 spring sports athletes to step foot on the field, court, track and course.

LRS athletic director Greg Whitmore said that he's never experienced such a rough start to the spring sports season in his 27 years in Ritzville.

"I have the feeling that this is going to be the most challenging spring we've ever had," said Whitmore. "Not that we haven't had snow on the first day or snow in April, but I don't think we've ever seen these kind of long-term weather forecasts where it's not getting above freezing and there's no chance of it melting for awhile."

Whitmore added that he doesn't feel like he's going to have any other choice than to cancel some events. The preservation of league events will always come first, and it's helpful that non-league events are typically played earlier in the season while league events are played later in the season.

Cancellations have already occurred for three of the five spring sports. The softball jamboree scheduled for March 7 in Colfax, the baseball jamboree on March 9 in Connell and the tennis jamboree in Ritzville on March 9 were all cancelled last week.

With the snow's persistence in not melting, the baseball field, softball field, track, tennis courts and golf course are still completely covered in a blanket of snow. There's currently no timetable for when any of the ordinary practice locations will be ready for use.

The baseball and softball teams have been practicing in the Gilson Gym, the track team has been practicing in the Gilson Gym's wrestling and weight rooms, and the tennis team has been traveling to Sprague for its practices.

In terms of turnout, 16 students signed up to join the baseball team that is led by coaches Jason Hilzer and Tyler Frederick. Somewhere between 22 to 24 students signed up to play softball, giving the program enough players to field a junior varsity team this season. The softball team is coached by Todd O'Brien, Troy Ryan and Kiera Buriak.

About 22 students signed up for this year's track and field team, which is coached by Caitlin Jeske, Walter Crow and Morgan Walker. LRS will be hosting three track meets this season, including the Undeberg Invitational on April 27. According to Whitmore, 33 teams have already registered to participate in that meet.

Nick Weishaar and volunteer coach Mike Lynch will be leading a group of seven golfers this season, while Lorrie and Lindy Swanger will coach a squad of about 16 tennis players. It's not clear at this point whether the first home tennis match on March 16 or the first home golf match on March 19 will go on as planned.