Spring vs Fall

[default]

Can someone explain why high school softball is played in the spring and not the fall.
dd had six games scheduled this week and played one. I think everyone knows that the
whether is much better in September and October. I know that this would take away fall travel ball,
but you could start summer travel ball the last week of April or first week of May.

 

[default]

feelin' your pain...had 5 games scheduled this week, played 2. Games for today were cancelled last night :'(. Just back from fields, it could have been a go ?by gametime at noon >!

 

[default]

.....I'm going to have to dig out this thread from last year, and the year before, and....

 

[default]

It seems to me that when you play in the spring the first part of the regular season is a mess, but it is pretty nice by the middle of the season and the tournaments. If you play in the fall it seems as though the first part of the season would be pretty nice but by the time you got to tournaments things could be pretty shaky. I guess it just depends on whether it is more importatnt to have good weather during the regular season or the tournament season.

 

[default]

Ahh, but any day you can get a game in is a GREAT DAY no matter the weather...... ;D

Had some new parents at the JV game the other day saying when is he going to call it, It wasn't even bad compared to what they have played in over the years I told them, slight barely drizzle on and off, balmy in comparison to some...

didn't even need the battery electric blanket....

 

[default]

You are correct, that by midway through the current HS season, the weather is pretty nice, but trying to make up all the games is nearly impossible. We are only allowed 27 games on 23 days, so if you lose a DH, you can't go get 2 games, because you'll go over the 23 day limit.
Plus all these games start backing up, and it is very tough on teams that don't have much pitching depth.

 

[default]

One of the problems I see with having softball in the fall is that the days are getting shorter and colder, whereas in the spring the days are getting longer and warmer. ?It may get pretty cold come tournament time. ?There's no guarantee it's not going to rain in the fall either. ?I remember carrying my umbrella a lot during fall quarter as a freshman at OSU. ?With colder weather and less sunlight, it will take even longer for the fields to dry.

 

[default]

Another issue is with umpires if the the switch is made to fall. I'm not sure of any other part of Ohio, but here in the Mahoning Valley, a significant number of the better umpires also officiate football. Working two different sports would be very difficult and possibly a scheduling headache. School's would only be able to play 4 days a week. Fridays and Saturdays would be out of the question for softball. Not many of us would want to get up to do a softball DH after traveling Friday night for a football game. I for one, and the two other softball umpires on my football crew have all but given up working JV football on Saturday morning because of the travel on Friday nights. Then throw out the guys who work college football on Saturdays. That would force the OHSAA to relax their no DH on school night rules. I would have to make a choice and given where I am in regards to officiating football vs. umpiring softball, football would win out. making a change to fall would be a logistics and scheduling nightmare for schools.

 

[default]

Just my opinion so don't shoot the messenger....

Like it or not Softball is connected at the hip with baseball and you can't play baseball in the fall because of football and soccer ?players who also play baseball.

Moving softball to the fall would deprive the volleyball players from working out in 95 degree gyms with no ventalation, and then volleyball would have to play indoors while it is cold and rainy outside (wait, what's wrong with that??)

Soccer would have to move to the spring as well. ?At least they can (and often do) play in the rain and at least on wet fields.

As far as good umpires, you must have the corner on that market in the northern part of the state. ?I watched one last week who clearly was the most inconsistant plate umpire I had ever seen. ?Neihter the pitchers nor the batters had any idea how a pitch would be called, and he was equally as bad for both teams, but that's another topic.

I do believe that while mid October is usually nice and devoid of copious amounts of rainfall and flooded fields, that darkness would start to affect the games and by mid November the state tournament would be in for some pretty tough weather. So I guess its gona be the way its gonna be.

Let's just play some good ole hard nosed softball in the coming months...

Good luck to all.

 

[default]

HS sports can be played in mid-August. Golf for example usually starts long before school actually begins. There would be plenty of time in the Fall to play softball with tournaments and finish mid-October.

 

[default]

With Soc---er and volley ball , you are going to have many kids that play mutli sports , have to pick a sport. For those that are old enouogh. We use to play baseball and softball in the summer after school was done. . I ran track in the spring and played baseball in the summer. Most kids played four sports. It changed back in the early 70's. The reasoning was farm related work. Same logic that schools still have a summer break. Now schools are looking at a 12 month schedule like the rest of the world. Some of the Indianapolis In. schools have went to 12 month school year. That would put pressure on OHSAA to actually change rules to make sense! Heaven forbid that they would have to use common sense!