WOODBURY – Waking up to the sight of fresh snow is many students’ dream, but for the many people involved in Nonnewaug sporting events, this could end up turning into critical time lost practicing, training, or working alongside teammates.
Snow has many impacts on Nonnewaug – causing delays, early dismissals, or cancelations. That list only continues to grow, if you include the impacts on after-school sporting events. With games, meets, and practices being canceled, rescheduled, and delayed, schedules are constantly changing all in an effort to adapt to what mother nature throws at us.
In the case that a game does get canceled because of winter weather, it can be a challenge to reschedule them. Not all schools have the same breaks or game days, so finding a day that works for both schools is no small feat for all those involved.
“[Rescheduling games is] very difficult,” says Nonnewaug athletic director and trainer, Sean McGee. “You have to balance it, and work the best you can with it.”
The struggles of rescheduling, due to snowy or icy conditions, can also cause changes in practice times. This leads to difficulties for some student athletes finding rides to and from practices.
“Sometimes when I need rides to basketball, it’s a lot harder to get to the school with all the snow and ice, making me a lot later to practices or games then I meant to be,” says sophomore Eliza Butkus, who is a player on the Nonnewaug girls basketball team. “The weather just throws off my schedule and makes it harder for me to get to the school.”
Winter weather also affects practices for indoor track. Depending on whether practices are indoor or outdoor each day changes what they work on. This can be a setback for many indoor track athletes, as they prepare for upcoming meets during practices.
“For both indoor and even outdoor track, winter weather greatly hinders practice,” says Nonnewaug indoor track coach, Deborah Flaherty. “If the track has any accumulation of snow, we cannot practice outside, even if the weather warms up. One snowfall can keep us off the track for weeks.”
Additionally, more serious winter weather can result in the closing of schools, which causes practices and games to be canceled as well.
“The safety of our students and parents is the most important thing,” says Brian Murphy, Superintendent of Region 14. “A lot of times, it takes a good portion of the day that we have no school to clean; the custodians have to clean and companies come in to salt the parking lots. So that’s why we don’t have any practices or games when we have snow days for school. ”
Winter weather conditions can typically cause driving on roads to be dangerous, so it makes sense not to have sports events.
But what if there were practices on snow days?
“On a regular day where the winter weather is causing disruption, my dream would be to have access to an indoor facility,” says Flaherty. “Some schools are able to practice all winter long at an indoor track facility, which also means they can practice field events. It puts them at a great advantage.”
Nonnewaug girls basketball coach, William Maisto agrees.
“Obviously, it would be helpful to us because we’re preparing for our next game,” says Maisto. “However, we need to follow CIAC rules and school rules.”
These rules prevent many sports events from happening on snow days, but Flaherty has hope for the future, as Nonnewaug’s teams continue to thrive without this extra practice time.
“Something like that would be incredibly helpful, but until that ever happens, we keep being creative – and it works. Our teams are strong,” Flaherty says.
So if the weather is out of our control, the next snowday, instead wishing to watch the points accumulate on the Chief’s scoreboard, just enjoy the sight of fresh snow accumulate on the ground.
