Snow start for spring sports

By DAVID LESNICK

The Daily Inter Lake

Flathead High School’s Dan Hodge has seen it all weather-wise during his 47 years at the school, 44 of those as the head boys track coach.

But this spring season might beat them all in his eyes.

“I didn’t think it was (at first), but it might be the worst since I’ve been coaching,” he said.

“One year 25 years ago I was down there snow blowing (the track).”

Hodge, head girls track coach Charlie Dotson and Flathead activities director Bryce Wilson were at Legends Stadium a week and a half before the first spring sports practice on March 11th clearing the track for six-plus hours. Hodge himself has been there for 22 hours with the snow removal.

“We had our home snowblowers, school district snowblowers and were walking around the track and the runways blowing snow off,” Hodge said.

A couple FHS maintenance personnel also helped out.

“The whole complex right now is horrible,” he said.

“From the ground up there is six to eight inches, then a two-inch layer of ice with four inches of snow on top of that. That’s slowing down the whole melting process.”

Track and softball has had to share the FHS gym for the first few days of spring practice.

“Very packed,” Hodge said.

“I had over 100 boys there, there were over 100 girls. We use the gym for stretching and dynamic running exercises. Then we turn the gym over to softball. We go to the hallways, stairs and weight room. Softball can’t do that.”

But this is nothing new for Hodge and the other programs.

“We’ve seen it before,” he said of late starts.

“We have developed some alternate training, things we do. We do the best we can with the environment we have.”

Flathead’s home opener for track is April 2 with Whitefish for a dual meet. Glacier opens the same day at home with Missoula Sentinel.

Tennis and softball season openers are also in jeopardy because of snow with both sports stuck indoors for practices.

Glacier and Flathead are scheduled to open the tennis season in Helena on Saturday.

“They had 19 inches of snow on the courts Wednesday at Capital,” Glacier tennis coach Josh Munro said.

“That’s pretty iffy (getting those matches in). It’s spring break for both schools, so neither school would have a varsity lineup anyway.”

Glacier is scheduled to play a dual at Bigfork on April 4th. Flathead is home April 6th with the Missoula Schools.

“We’ll be lucky to play by the 6th,” Munro said.

“Maybe the 13th. We’ll lose two weekends out of our five (for the season).

“It isn’t ideal,” he added.

“Not really the way you want to go into the year, but you work with what you have. In previous years we’d get rained out three of the five Saturdays.”

Glacier’s varsity has practiced indoors at The Summit for two weeks, but must now move back to the high school gym until the outdoor courts at Flathead Valley Community College are playable.

The Glacier JV have also been inside, but at the Kalispell Middle School gym.

“It’s pretty bad out there,” Munro said of the FVCC courts.

“We are not allowed to shovel. It’s a long melting process.”

Munro said this is the worst he has seen the courts snow-wise this late into March.

“It’s the most snow at the start of the tennis season and I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” he said.

“It’s ankle deep on the north (end), south (end) is knee deep because of the shade down there.

“We just have to get through the melt,” Munro added.

“Everyone in the state is dealing with that.

“Those who have been able to play inside, it’s not so bad,” Munro said.

“What (being indoors) really hurts is the development of new players.”

Glacier and Flathead softball are scheduled to begin play with a Jamboree Tournament in Great Falls on Saturday.

“No snow on the fields, but pretty wet,” Glacier coach Abby Connolly said of the fields in the Electric City.

The home opener for both schools is April 9th.

Glacier softball, like tennis and track, has been confined to gym time thus far with morning practices from 6-7:30 a.m. and evening sessions from 5:30-7:30.

“Offensively, we are getting quality reps every day,” Connolly said.

“The ball doesn’t change too much inside, outside as far as hitting. It’s a little more difficult with defense. We’re doing lots of drills, they are still improving. You can’t make some of those judgments on who can go back on a fly ball (inside) or who has the best range in the outfield. We will determine that outside. We can still do a lot with footwork.”

Connolly said GHS maintenance workers have plowed off one field at the school.

“The outfield is showing, the infield is still really wet,” she said.

“The other fields, because of the angle, they were not able to plow them.”

Despite crowded gyms and being cooped up inside, it’s all working out.

“A positive attitude (helps),” she said.

“It’s not atypical for us not to be outside for two weeks. As a player, an assistant coach and head coach, I can never remember being outside the first week. Very rarely the second week.”