Stansbury High School softball player Lindsay Guymon throws the ball back to home plate Wednesday during practice inside the SHS gymnasium. Spring sports teams in the area have started the year practicing inside because of the recent snow and cold temperatures.
Stansbury High School softball player Kenzie Myers throws the ball back to home plate Wednesday during practice inside the SHS gymnasium.
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Loading...Local high school spring sports have taken shelter indoors during the snow and cold temperatures, but the coaches aren’t too concerned.
The spring teams have practiced indoors during February, but the overall feeling from the coaches is that it’s just a part of the season and that other teams are going through the same thing.
Stansbury softball coach Bridget Clinton said practicing indoors isn’t what they want, but they have to manage it just like anything else.
“It’s not an advantage being inside, but everyone else is in the same boat except for the southern schools,” she said. “We do different things to stay sharp for a game. We just have to be mentally prepared and mentally tough. It’s not ideal, but it is what it is.”
Al Bottema, Tooele’s track and field coach, said sometimes practicing indoors could be a disadvantage but other times not so much. It’s all a matter of working with what’s available, he said. “We’ve had to literally get out and shovel snow off the track before,” Bottema said. “We do what we have to do to make ends meet.”
While THS track is practicing indoors, it also has training regimens designed for the indoors such as assigned weight training days. All in all, Bottema wasn’t overly concerned with the cold weather and indoor practices. Grantsville baseball coach Loren Anderson said this year has been different than past years. He said he’s usually able to get his players outside for a bit before the baseball regular season starts, but the weather kept that from happening this year.
Grantsville is scheduled to host Park City on Monday at 3 p.m., and Anderson said he doesn’t expect anything to keep that game from taking place. GHS has had people out on the baseball field during the past two weeks clearing snow and getting it ready for Monday’s game. Anderson said it’s just a matter of waiting for the dirt to dry.
In the meantime, Grantsville baseball players have participated in indoor practices to prepare for the season. The team has one indoor batting cage it’s able to use, and Anderson said he’s been able to teach fundamentals and other important game skills the players need for the season.
The biggest problem has been getting to practice game speeds. The pitchers and fielders have been able to throw a little bit while indoors, but they haven’t been able to throw hard like they’ll need to in games. Anderson said the first time the pitchers will really get to let their arms loose and fire will be Monday’s game against Park City.
According to Tooele’s 10-day forecast at www.weather.com, the area is expected to consistently have 40-degree temperatures or be in the high-30s starting Friday. While the temperatures in the area have been cold and snowy, the weather has been different for the seven Region 9 schools.
The average temperature in St. George has been 54.2 degrees since Feb. 9, which was the first day after the last regular season basketball games for Grantsville, Stansbury and Tooele. The average temperature in Hurricane since Feb. 9 has been 51 degrees, and in Cedar City the average temperature was 38.2 degrees with two days of snow and five days of rain.
Each baseball and softball team between Grantsville, Stansbury and Tooele will compete in southern Utah at some point between March 7 and March 16. The Grantsville softball team plays at Cedar High School on March 7 and is the only one not playing in St. George.
rbriggs@tooeletranscript.com
