If you thought you were having a bad day, consider the one Fort Vancouver softball coach Erick Johnson had on Thursday.
After weeks of dodging rain showers and holding practices in the gym, Johnson was finally able to get his Trappers out onto the field for an actual game.
But then the start of the game was delayed 45 minutes. Once the game started, it didn’t go so well for the Trappers, which caused the game to run a long time.
When it was over — the Trappers lost — Johnson wasn’t able to leave the field until almost 8 p.m. — in the dark.
Then on the ride home, Johnson’s car got a flat tire.
That’s a bad day. But I suppose it could have been worse. It could have been raining.
Thursday was about the only day in the past week that you could have said that.
After the rainiest February on record, we’ve already surpassed our average rainfall for March, and there are still almost two weeks left in the month.
It’s been so wet that after the first full week of spring sports, I was beginning to wonder if there would be enough games played to hold our first prep athlete-of-the-week vote this week.
Luckily there were, and that vote will begin by noon on Monday.
Baseball, softball and girls tennis teams have been struggling to get games in this month. To make things just that much more annoying, two of the nicest days we’ve had since the start of the spring sports season have been Sundays, when — as a general rule — teams aren’t playing or practicing.
Still, some teams have found a way.
The Union, Prairie and Mountain View baseball teams traveled over to Portland last week to play a baseball jamboree on Concordia University’s all-weather field.
King’s Way Christian and Ridgefield both hosted Franklin Pierce of Tacoma on Friday in games at the all-weather field at Luke Jensen Park.
The Union, Evergreen and Heritage baseball teams all traveled to the Tri-Cities last week to find dry conditions to get games in.
The forecast for this week is not quite as soggy as it was last week. But it’s not exactly beach weather either.
For the first official week of spring, we’ll have cloudy days all week with highs in the 50s. There will be the chance of showers every day with Friday looking to be the real soaker.
So there’s a chance some teams will be able to get some games in between the showers. But it’s been so wet this spring that some schools need a couple of consecutive days of sunny weather to dry out their fields.
And this week, games start counting.
The 4A Greater St. Helens League begins league play in softball with Union-Battle Ground and Heritage-Camas slated to play games on Tuesday and Thursday.
The other teams that start league play this week are soccer teams, which play games rain or shine.
Trico soccer teams open league Tuesday with Toledo-Winlock at Stevenson, Castle Rock at King’s Way Christian and Seton Catholic hosting Columbia-White Salmon.
The 2A GSHL opens league on Wednesday with Mark Morris playing Hockinson on Prairie’s turf field, Washougal at R.A. Long and Woodland playing Columbia River at Kiggins Bowl.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
