Rain, Rain, Go Away

Today was game day! It also rained for the majority of the day. This rain is really getting old, but one of the advantages of it was that as opposed to last game day, where it was a beautiful sunny day and everything went smoothly, today I saw how the athletic department works when nothing goes as planned due to weather. The plus side of the rain, was that I learned first hand just how chaotic a bad weather game day can be. It started off bright and early with a walk around all of the athletic fields. It started on the lacrosse field, where we examined standing puddles of water in front of all of the goal nets. Some of the puddles could be filled with something that absorbs the water whereas others simply could not. This is when I learned what it is for a field to be of no use, and to be "marginal." Marginal is good. Marginal means that the game might still be able to be held and the safety of the players would not be effected. No use, means that the game is canceled...end of discussion. After the lacrosse fields, which were determined marginal, we walked over to the baseball field, which was of no use. We then went over to the softball field, where I prayed for it to be labeled as marginal. No such luck. As you can see from the picture at right, our infield consisted of small ponds. No matter how much I wanted
the game to be on, tiny lakes and all, it was canceled. After all the fields had been evaluated, we then called the guy who maintains all of the fields to listen to his input. After a brief discussion, it is established which games need to be canceled and which ones can remain. Once this information is established, you then have to broadcast it to the students, parents, coaches, and opposing teams. While the students, parents, and coaches are told through social media and email, the opposing teams are told through a phone call to the other schools athletic director. Today's lesson learned: rainy game days are chaotic.