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Sports

Rainy Weather Disrupts Spring Sports Season

Last week alone, Quaker Valley canceled or changed the dates of 13 spring sports events from the varsity to the junior high level.

Cancelled, changed, forfeited, postponed.

The weatherman has not been kind to high school spring sports athletes this year.

Rain has been measured 32 days in the Sewickley and Pittsburgh areas since spring sports began in mid-March, according to Weather.com.

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Like high schools across the region, ’s spring sports teams have been forced to cope with two forces beyond their control – the stormy weather, and the playoff deadlines imposed by the WPIAL and the PIAA.

Last week alone, Quaker Valley cancelled or changed the dates of 13 spring sports events from the varsity to the junior high level.

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“Like all WPIAL teams, we’ve had our schedule completely disrupted to say the least,” Quaker Valley varsity baseball coach Thomas O’Connor said. “What hurts most is that non-conference games and games at the junior high level have been cancelled so that varsity section games can be made up.”

Some Quaker Valley teams have coped better than others.

Boys lacrosse is played on artificial turf at Quaker Valley, so only one away game - on grass - has been cancelled so far.

“Our field turf is excellent,” Quakers boys lacrosse coach Bill Marcotte said. “And we play in anything, as long as there is no lightning. Just gotta play through it.”

It’s a different story for Quaker Valley’s softball and baseball teams, which not only have to contend with wet weather, but soggy grass and muddy fields.

Unlike the Pittsburgh Pirates, Quaker Valley doesn’t have a ground crew to cover the infield at the first sign of rain.

“Unfortunately, that’s baseball in the Northeast,” O’Connor said. “What you end up with is less games, less opportunities for playing time for younger players and a condensed season with games scheduled six days in a row. Look at some of the scores in the WPIAL. They look like football scores these days. This is because of a lack of pitching depth at the lower classifications. It’s very unpredictable.”

Wet weather also has held up completion of Quaker Valley’s new baseball field, Esmark Field at Bouchard Family Park. The Quakers haven’t had a home baseball field for two seasons, and now the opening of their new park has been held up by construction delays due to weather, O’Connor said.

“To their credit, the kids have worked hard, be it in a gymnasium, tennis court, football practice field, turf, hallway, you name it,” the coach said. “We still believe in the future of this team, and we start many underclassmen and juniors this season.”

High school spring sports across the state end June 17 with the PIAA softball and baseball championships at Penn State. The state softball title game will be held at Penn State’s new $12 million Nittany Lions Softball Park.

The state track and field championships for Class AA and AAA will be May 27-28 at Shippensburg University, the same date as the state tennis championships at Hershey Racquet Club, Hershey.

“The inclement and uncooperative spring weather has resulted in a very frustrating spring interscholastic athletic season,” WPIAL Executive Director Tim O’Malley noted recently in a letter to area athletic directors.

O’Malley advised schools not to use forfeits as a “convenient way” to complete section games.

“It is our hope that the weather will eventually cooperate,” he wrote.

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