‘Postponed’ is the word of the season

This wasn’t the type of spring area athletic directors, coaches and players were hoping for.

In the first year many area baseball teams had their seasons moved from summer to spring by the WIAA, Mother Nature brought the precipitation.

While last spring featured similar rainy weather, it’s the addition of America’s pastime that is making this season all the more complicated.

The state already has a shortage of umpires, caused in part by the fact that fans treat them so poorly, and many umps do softball and baseball. With both seasons in one, the crunch is on.

Creating initial schedules was challenging enough. Once games started to get rained out, it got worse. Many umpires already have full schedules on make-up dates.

Port Washington High School Athletic Director Thad Gabrielse tried to reschedule a baseball game for Tuesday this week.

“I sent out a posting to over 500 officials from this part of the state, and we did not receive one call,” he said. “I’m working with the (umpire) assigners in the area, they’ve already told us ‘Good luck.’”

Grafton Athletic Director Kevin Moore said, “The official shortage is real.”

The issue isn’t limited to high schools. Gabrielse said youth baseball leagues have started and they use the same umpires, exacerbating the problem.

Sometimes, schools aren’t waiting until it rains to reschedule games. Grafton’s softball team was scheduled to play Whitefish Bay on Monday and Wednesday but instead played a doubleheader on Monday just because heavy rain was in the forecast.

At Ozaukee High School, a wet spot in the outfield caused Athletic Director Greg Lucas to look for alternative diamonds.

Baseball coach Steve Kowalkowski approached the Ozaukee Athletic Booster Club and secured funding to hold three games at Kapco Park in Mequon, home of Concordia University Wisconsin and the Lakeshore Chinooks. Lucas’ athletic department budget is picking up the $300 tab for a fourth game there.

But Lucas, who spent years as an athletic director in Door County and as a trainer at Brookfield Central, noticed an advantage to being in Fredonia. He said he can get umpires from as far north as Manitowoc and from the Milwaukee area to the south, making for a larger pool of officials than at other schools.

Moving venues is an option many teams are using, although usually it’s to an opponent’s field and not a neutral site.

That adds another challenge in scheduling  — securing transportation.

“School is getting out, buses are being used up,” Gabrielse said, praising Johnson Bus Co. for accommodating last-minute changes.

Cedar Grove-Belgium High School hasn’t had that issue yet. Athletic Director Scott Parsons said the baseball field is in good condition.

“The best thing we did is when we redid our infield in fall,” he said. “We play more games than we ever would have with our old infield.”

Parsons said Big East Conference baseball is enjoying one little luxury that will go away next season. Since there wasn’t much time to prepare for spring ball, just one  league game was scheduled between each team. That increases to two games next season.

“That’s going to present the same type of challenges with softball,” he said.

The Big East Conference this season already had softball teams play each other once instead of twice due to the weather. Rockets’ coach Scott Soerens said that was the second time he has ever seen it happen. Last year was the first.

One option Gabrielse is considering this year is playing softball games in between playoff games.

“I have never done that before,” he said, noting he’s in his 18th year as an athletic director. “It gives you an idea of what this spring is like.”

Players are impacted as well. Port baseball coach C.J. Koehler has brought in a sports psychologist and Tom Stanton of Mel’s Charities to discuss community outreach in order to keep indoor practices more interesting.

“It’s crazy. Every day in the morning, you don’t know what you’re doing. At 1 p.m., the decision is made and you have to adjust,” he said.