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LOGAN — Large amounts of snow are making it tough for some Utah school districts to get spring sports underway.
As of Monday, schools in Cache Valley and Box Elder County were moving snow where they could into large piles. But many of the fields and tennis courts are still unusable.
"That's where our long jump and our high jump would be, but we'll have to make some accommodations and try to do those inside," said Dave Swenson, director of secondary programs at the Cache County School District.
Some things are pushed out by the snow, but when it comes to the tennis courts and the baseball diamonds, Swenson said all bets are off.
"We're used to always being a late startup here in Cache Valley, but this is definitely unprecedented," he said.
The softball, baseball and tennis teams are going to have to wait a bit longer.
"We're weeks out. We had a meeting (Monday) morning with our principals and athletic directors, as well as our transportation director, to come up with creative ideas," Swenson said.
And getting creative may include moving games to Utah County, as they've already called off several preseason games.
Meanwhile, Box Elder High School is facing similar problems, but not as severe, according to Jesse Roberts, the school's athletic director and assistant principal. Its baseball team is spending time sprinkling ash over the snow.
"With some sunlight, it warms up that black much faster than it would the snow and melts it much, much faster," Roberts explained.
He is hoping they can be back playing out here on Friday.
"Everything with spring sports in northern Utah is high hopes. You always hope for the best and see what happens," Roberts said.
Everything with spring sports in northern Utah is high hopes. You always hope for the best and see what happens.
–Jesse Roberts, Box Elder High School
But in the meantime, they've made some compromises.
"It's not easy to schedule eight spring sports inside of gyms, and everybody's got to give a little," he said.
Other northern Utah counties like Weber and Davis also had to move their practices indoors. The Weber School District told KSL-TV it would likely postpone some of its Tuesday home games.
