On the Bench with Byron Higgin

Minneota coaches have been going crazy trying to prepare their teams for the spring sports WITHOUT the ability to go outside.

Softball Coach Heidi Boerboom was really sorry the team missed a chance for an indoor softball game because they just don’t know when they’ll get a chance for competition.

Baseball Coach Keven Larson pulled his players together and talked to them about concentrating and not letting the lack of the outdoors get to them.

Golf Coach Greg Gile has his golfers swinging the clubs inside — but it’s not the same.

So with this in mind, I am running a column written by John Millea of the high school league, so you can see how others are adapting ....

By John Millea, John’s Journal Minnesota State High School League

April has arrived, which means it’s time for warm sunshine, green grass and outdoor sporting events, right?

Wrong.

In much of the state we can glance out the window and see swirling snow, mushy ground and very little reason for optimism based on the weather forecast.

Spring has sprung a joke on us all, it seems. Having reached this point, all spring sports are now underway … or at least they should be underway. But here we sit, with baseball, softball, track and field, golf teams and others searching for indoor practice spaces.

I’ve gathered some reaction to all this from coaches and athletes around Minnesota, and it can best be summarized with two words: frustration and fun.

St. James High School softball coach Sam Baumgartner wrote in an email, “I’ve tried to be creative about mixing practice activities up. You have to make it fun and break the routines.”

This past week, we took the girls outside to the staff parking lot and hit fly balls in a light rain and 40-degree weather. There were huge snowbanks behind our players and a few balls drifted a little deep.

The girls took those opportunities to make diving catches while landing in the snow. They had a blast! Some of the balls we hit were too far back into the snow and they just sunk into the soft snow piles.

We had girls in shorts trying to dig them out and several times they ended up sinking in up to their waist. It’s hard to remember most practices over the years but this one will stick with us for a long time.”

Someone sent me a photo of St. Paul Como Park assistant track coach Marv Rousse working with a hurdler on her form … in a school hallway instead of outdoors on the track.

Terry Sadler, softball coach at Warroad High School, posted to Twitter a short video of the Warriors “jousting” in the gymnasium, with players on all fours, teammates sitting on top of them wearing helmets and slow-speed jousting with bats at another team of “horse and rider.”

Pelican Rapids softball coach Dan Beck wrote, “With over a foot of snow on our field in Pelican Rapids, we took a break from the bats and gloves and brought out the sticks and the goals!”

He added a photo of the girls in the gym, having fun with plastic hockey sticks.

On Facebook, the Moose Lake/Willow River baseball team posted a fun message about what the team is doing to have fun:

The baseball season is well under way, and after two weeks of working on just about everything that can be done in a gym practice for baseball, and with the foreseeable forecast looking grim to say the least, it was time to let loose a little...

In an email, Moose Lake/Willow River assistant baseball coach Bryce Rushmeyer wrote, “The Moose Lake/Willow River Rebel baseball team is starting to hit the wall when it comes to indoor practices.”

“We’re practicing in the old school’s gym (the lone occupants) and the fields and parking lots are too covered in snow to even try to take a few fly balls or long-toss sessions.

This week, we had our “end of fundraising” celebration with a hot dog feed (over 150 hot dogs on a grill outside the main doors) for our 30-40 or so 7-12 baseball players (ending with attempting to send a hot dog through a pitching machine where one of our players was able to make contact).”

When the Minnesota Twins opened their season at Baltimore last week, the baseball team at Onamia High School used the televised game as an opportunity to learn and bond.

Peyton Greve, a senior at Centennial High School, is a track and field athlete who competes in the shot put and discus.

Peyton wrote last week… “Let me start by saying, the struggle is real for us throwers right now. We have been inside for practice for three weeks and dedicated our practice on Thursday to shoveling the shot put and discus areas. We found our discus circle covered with two inches of ice and lots of snow.”

ODDS AND ENDS:

•Save the date! The annual Minneota Viking Wrestling Golf outing will be held on Saturday, June 16 at Countryside Golf Club.