'Wintry Mix' Most Daunting Opponent of Spring Athletes

Author: Peter Yordan

There have been no two fouler words than "wintry mix" for spring athletes this season. With temperatures stubbornly hovering around the freezing mark, Middlebury's traditional winter wonderland has turned into an April nightmare for those who ply their trade out on the athletic fields.
Three teams, baseball, softball and track and field, had their matches cancelled this weekend due to the inclement weather which left most sports fields underneath several inches of snow.
Cold weather is certainly nothing new to spring teams in Middlebury, who frequently have to contend with poor conditions all the way up to Spring Break. This year, however, has been especially rough.
"This is the most unusual spring I've ever seen," said softball Head Coach Diane Boettcher. "It isn't the snow so much as that it is still so cold that the snow won't melt." Early April snows are something that comes with the territory in Vermont, but usually the snowfall quickly melts away with the rising temperatures. Bob Smith, head coach of the baseball team, noted one memorable game day two years ago. "We came back from Florida after spring break and it had snowed 20 inches. All the players got out on the field and shoveled like crazy and got it clear so we could play."
That year 60 degree temperatures made the work worth the effort. This spring, however, global warming has been just a futile wish for those teams who have been forced to retreat to the warm confines of the Nelson Bubble.
Most affected have been the baseball, softball and track and field teams, who have been forced to content themselves with scaled-down indoor practices while most of their competitors have been working on their tans.
Track and field has been particularly stymied by the cold. The team has been forced to stay on the small indoor track far longer than normal this year, making practice for outdoor events difficult.
"If we were to run outside at temperatures below 40-45 degrees, we risk pulling muscles," said Head Coach Martin Beatty, "so even if the track were clear it would still be very risky."
Many participants in certain events have had to curtail their training regimens, with some events, like hammer and discuss and javelin, unable to practice at all. "It's been particularly tough on the explosive events like sprinting and hurdles," said Beatty. "But even for distance runners, running on an indoor track is not like running outdoor track."
Softball and baseball are two other sports that suffer in wintry climes. Both teams have been splitting time inside with other grounded spring programs like tennis, track and ultimate Frisbee. The two squads have had to get creative inventing ways to stay in practice, grabbing time on the turf to practice shagging fly balls and using their time inside to work on fundamentals.
"Training in the bubble allows us to enhance our short game and situational play," said Boettcher of her softball team. "We've gotten very sharp at doing things like fielding bunts and covering bases." Both teams are well aware of the limitations placed on them by practicing indoors, however.
"Outfielders don't get time fielding flies, and infielders get a very different bounce for ground balls on turf than on grass," said Smith. "There's stuff you just can't practice, like throwing with wind blowing."
Hitters on both teams also face a tricky adjustment to hitting against the sky instead of a dome background. "Developing consistency is the key to success in baseball, but you can't keep it when you switch back and forth between being inside and outside," said Smith.
All the teams realize that they have the burden of dealing with weather that many of their opponents don't have to face. "There's no question that it puts us at a competitive disadvantage," said Beatty. "Many of our opponents can be out on tracks before Spring Break. Our championship meet is in late April, so it really puts us under the gun to improve all our performances and get our times down."
While the baseball and softball teams don't face the tight turnaround or qualifying pressures against which track and field struggle, they too have to make the best of their limited time in the sun. The annual Spring Break trip scheduled by most spring sports teams takes on added importance.
"To do away with the spring break trip would do away with baseball," said Smith. Many Middlebury teams play at least a third of their matches during spring break in such assorted hot spots as Florida and California. "The cold weather makes you value the experience that much more," said baseball player Richard Hightower '04. "Every guy on the team looks forward to the trip several months in advance."
The endless Vermont winters can often give the spring season an ephemeral feel and cause the athletic programs added difficulty in attracting players.
"It's a factor, there's no question about it," said Smith. "Why would you go north to play the game when you can play it outside all spring in warmer weather? I tell [prospectives] they have to love where we are in Vermont and love the school to play here."
Yet many of the players for teams such as track and field, softball and baseball hail from Southern states.
Hightower, a Georgian, noted the quality of the school as the main reason he decided on Middlebury, a sentiment shared by many other spring sport athletes. Boettcher noted that for her softball players the overwhelming desirability of the school outweighs the disadvantages.
"They overlook the cold weather for the warm atmosphere here at Middlebury."