Lucas Punkari
For those getting their facilities, leagues, or teams ready for the spring and summer months, the fact there’s still snow on the ground across the district in the middle of April is downright nightmarish.
“It’s the total opposite to what we had here last year when everybody was out on the golf course already by this time,” noted Kitchen Creek Golf Club general manager Glen Kellar.
“At this point, we are hoping to get things open here for the first week of May but that’s the same for a lot of courses right now,” he added.
Having opened in late March last year, the Heron Landing golf course at Couchiching also is in a holding pattern when it comes to the 2013 season, which has led to a few unfortunate side effects.
“Right now, I’m the only guy that is working right now out of 25 people, and that makes a huge impact for those employees,” said head golf pro and general manager Brian Johnstone.
“The last three years here have been abnormal when it comes to starting early, so we are still looking towards the first week of May to start up, which has been really the normal start date for us in the past,” he added.
“We still need some form of heat in the long-range forecast, and I don’t think that will be for a while yet,” Johnstone warned.
While the golf season is being delayed, the one league that might be impacted most is Fort Frances Youth Soccer, which is slated to start its season in two weeks.
“We’re going to be meeting tomorrow night to discuss what we are going to do,” FFYS secretary Catherine McGuire said.
“But I’m sure that it will be affecting us, especially since they are calling for [more] snow this week.
“We’re scheduled to start up on Monday, April 29, but I think that we will end up pushing it back one week and extend the season one week further to near the end of June,” she added.
“Mother Nature is certainly wreaking havoc with us.”
The Muskie boys’ and girls’ soccer teams also have been affected by the slow spring—forced to practice indoors since their season officially began following the March Break.
As well, the status of a pair of exhibition games against the Rainy River Owls, slated for next Wednesday (April 24), remains up in the air.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” admitted boys’ head coach Shane Beckett.
“Our regular season doesn’t start until May 8, so we should be okay for that, but I can’t see that game against Rainy River happening,” he remarked.
“We have played on the practice fields before as they have dried off pretty quickly, but we just need to make sure that the snow goes away.”
While both gyms at Fort High were used by each team when it came to the tryout process, it becomes quite difficult to work out many of the their formations and nuances when confined to a small space.
“It’s definitely a unique year when it comes to getting ready,” said girls’ head coach Sarah Faragher.
“I’m not sure whether we are going to get outside before our first tournament in Thunder Bay at the start of May, but we are going to prepare in the best way that we can,” she pledged.
Another Muskie group that’s been confined to the school is the track and field team.
They just started to run outdoors in the past week, but will be unable to use the track surrounding the football field at Fort High for a while yet.
“Right now we are just indoors doing drills instead of those days that we would be doing time trials,” explained head coach Natasha Shack.
“You can do that while doing our long-distance runs outside,” she conceded. “But while you can measure our a 400-metre distance on the road, it’s hard to mimic things that happen on the track.
“We [also] haven’t even had a chance to work on our field events at all yet since we are still indoors,” added Shack.
“But we are still hoping to be out on the track for the first week of May before we go into our first meet in Dryden on May 16.”
Meanwhile, pre-season preparations at the Emo Speedway have been delayed slightly as a result of the snowy weather.
The Borderland Racing Association currently is taking a wait-and-see approach, however, over whether it will affect the start of the racing season May 18.
“Depending of the speed of the snow melt and the weather overall, we may or may not have a change of plans, such as moving everything back a week,” board member Anthony Leek noted.
“Right now, the track is almost completely covered with approximately a foot of snow or more on the facility, which is forcing us to sit idly by until things improve,” he added.
There is one league, however, that’s looking okay if the snow hangs around for a while—the Borderland Soccer League.
“I am assuming, and hoping, that the snow will be gone by the time the league starts on June 3,” board member Amy Wilson-Hands quipped.
“If the snow is still around by the time our exhibition games are supposed to start on May 20, then we would have to postpone those games,” she noted.
“But I don’t think that will be a major issue for us in June.
“Stranger things have happened, though.
“But we are ending our season two weeks later than we have had in the past, so we are not really losing any league play if we are forced to push back things,” Wilson-Hands added.
