Switch to spring baseball brings challenges

The WIAA’s announcement that baseball will only be playing in spring starting next year could have varying impacts on local programs.

Port Washington, Grafton, Cedar Grove-Belgium and Ozaukee all will make the move to spring after decades of summer ball.

While the move was expected at some point — the number of summer teams has been decreasing for years — some planning will be required.

One challenge will be having enough umpires for all the games because many baseball umpires work in softball, which is also held in spring.

“It’s difficult enough in the spring right now, and with the additional games being added, it could be an issue,” said Cedar Grove-Belgium athletic director Scott Parsons.

“I think the days of having a rainout and assuming you can play the next day are gone, as finding available umpires will be much more difficult.”

Facilities will be another question. Port Washington uses its field at the high school and one at Grady Park in Saukville, the latter shared with other teams. Port has three high school teams in baseball.

“We definitely need to create a schedule to accommodate the facilities we have,” Port athletic director Thad Gabrielse said.

Night games are possible for some teams, but not all fields have lights, or working ones.

At Port, the lights are old and need to be rewired.

“We will test them out in spring just to see how they are working. We definitely need some improvement with our lights,” Gabrielse said.

In the Big East Conference, Parsons said, four teams have lights: Random Lake, Elkhart Lake, St. Mary Central and Howards Grove. That would make scheduling easier, “but playing a game at 7 p.m. in April is pretty brutal,” he added.

Cedar Grove-Belgium baseball coach Tom Race said he has an open mind about the move to spring ball, but noted the school’s field would need to have its drain tile redone.

“Our field doesn’t take water well,” he said. “In summer, it’s a problem. In spring, it’s going to be 10 times worse.”

Race said he likes that spring baseball is split into divisions. The summer season didn’t have enough teams, and thus the Rockets, with a school enrollment of 350, would get matched up in the playoffs with much larger schools such as Plymouth or the West Bend teams.

“We have a pretty good team. If we were in divisional ball, we would be the team to beat,” Race said.

Adding a boys’ sport to spring, however, will force some choices. Track and golf are also in spring, along with tennis at Port and Grafton.

“I hate to see a kid having to make a choice between two sports that he loves,” Grafton baseball coach Brian Durst said.

Port baseball coach C.J. Koehler acknowledged some sports may lose athletes to each other.

“We might lose some kids to those other sports or those other sports could lose some kids to baseball. For a smaller school like Port, it could be challenging,” he said.

Port track and field coach Mark Pasten said he can think of four members of his team that would likely choose to play baseball.

“It’s definitely going to have an impact on our numbers. It’s not going to be devastating,” he said.

Pasten said he is open to the possibility of students being in baseball and track.

“I’m going to be willing to work with kids if they want to try to do both,” he said.

If splitting doesn’t work, the four-sport athlete will become a thing of the past.

“There was kind of a rarefied air of a student athlete who could letter four times in one year,” Grafton athletic director Kevin Moore said.

Race said losing one or two athletic students to another sport is a big deal for a small school but that spring ball may help him field a full team more often. Last season, the Rockets were 7-0 heading into summer and lost six starters for a few games due to an all-star football game, Badger Boys State and church mission trips.

“There’s so much going on in summer  that you have to be flexible as a coach,” Race said.

Ozaukee, which didn’t field a baseball team two years ago due to a lack of players, could see a boost from the move to spring.

“We have a number of students who do not participate in the school season due to playing with travel teams over the summer,” Ozaukee athletic director Lee Baldwin said.

“The impact on our current sports will be minimal. Over the last decade or so, not many of our baseball players did a spring sport. Only a few.”

Most coaches said pitching limitations won’t create any more challenges than the summer season does. The WIAA requires three days of rest after a player throws 76 to 100 pitches, two days for 50 to 75 pitches and one day for 31 to 49 pitches.

Still, new Ozaukee baseball coach Steve Kowalkowski said he already told his players he wants to get as many of them pitching as possible.

“Even buying an inning is big,” he said.

Finding time to practice indoors could be an issue because several sports are already inside.

“Before we get out on the field, there’s going to be a crunch for gym time. I think practice time is going to be at a premium,” Durst said.

In Cedar Grove-Belgium, Race said that if the move to spring happened now,  baseball would be practicing from 7 to 9 p.m. in the gym.

“If my kid has to go back to school at 7 o’clock at night, that’s harder,” he said.

Durst said he will miss summer ball, especially the chance to maintain contact with student athletes after school is out.

“It’s sad to see summer baseball go. That’s just part of our culture around here,” he said.