Hopkinton High School's Student News Site

HHS Press

Hopkinton High School's Student News Site

HHS Press

Hopkinton High School's Student News Site

HHS Press

Harsh Winter Leaves Spring Sports Struggling

By Lauren Cameron

HHS athletes and coaches are facing difficulty when it comes to the snow impeding on not only practices, but the scheduling of games during the months of March, April, and beginning of May.

HHS Athletic Director Eric Karjel talks about the difficulty of scheduling games and how the fruit street fields have been a huge help to varsity teams this year. Photo by Lauren Cameron.
HHS Athletic Director Eric Karjel talks about the difficulty of scheduling games and how the fruit street fields have been a huge help to varsity teams this year. Photo by Lauren Cameron.

Athletic Director Eric Karjel hopes, “By the time we get back from vacation our fields will be playable. We sort of do this drill every year, in terms of flipping games to turf fields, but definitely not to this extent”

Traditionally, spring sports can begin the second week in March but the harsh, snowy winter has left teams stranded, sharing indoor gym space and being forced to postpone games much later than desired.

“We’ve always used the fruit street fields in the spring, but we are using them alot more extensively this year… We rent those fields so what we did this year is that we payed for some, and some of the teams used some fundraising money for it” added Karjel.

Assistant Varsity baseball coach Mark Sanborn says,“We’ve already pushed our first game back a week, so right now our first game is Friday, April 10th. As far as our field goes, who knows when it’s going to get cleared. Coming down towards the end of the season, more likely than not we’re going to be playing four games a week if not more, just because the schedule needs to be a lot more condensed.”

Assistant varsity baseball coach Mr. Sanborn discusses how the snow is affecting the team through practices and game schedules. Photo by Lauren Cameron.
Assistant varsity baseball coach Mr. Sanborn discusses how the snow is affecting the team through practices and game schedules. Photo by Lauren Cameron.

Almost every sport has been affected by the snow. Varsity track and Field captain Jess Rector added,“We had to push back our first meet. It helped us because it gave us more time to prepare and get back into the swing of things so we can be fully ready for the first meet. But it also has a downside, because now we are confined to the gym.”

Almost every sport is stuck fighting for gym space. With multiple teams practicing at the same time, the ability to run full drills and full workouts is extremely difficult, but the teams continuously pull through and figure out another successful game plan.

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