Hurricane Season Hits Colorado

The last few weeks have had me thinking about Covid-19. Three years ago, we started the 2020 season with a whimper. Over that winter, the Covid-19 pandemic set in across the country and nobody knew what to do or how to do it. Some of us lost family members so we knew it was something, but how much something?

Was playing on an acre of land a real threat to players and coaches? We were among the first teams in the country to don custom-printed, double-layered team face-coverings so that we could play on and take all the necessary precautions, but damnit, still play on. There were a lot of tournament cancellations and changes.

This year, while I haven’t done the math yet, I would dare say is worse in terms of cancellations and disruptions. The 2023 culprit? Weather in the form of snow and rain, so much rain. What has ultimately made 2023 softball in Colorado so disappointing is that we didn’t expect it, didn’t plan for it.

OR DID WE?

In 2022, we had 37% of our practices cancelled at our preferred outdoor practice venue due to rain. This winter, we initiated a new, 8,200 square foot indoor training center, the Upper Deck Club, for our Royals and as well for other teams. It not only proved to be helpful for winter practices, but this Spring, nearly 40% our practice schedule has been able to stay on schedule by moving indoors. Notably, this is a luxury most teams do not have on their own.

And, according to NOAA, last year ranked 21st in the wettest April-May months in the last 24 years in Colorado! It was “dry” last year. April-May 2023 however now rank 5th in the last 24 years and April-May 2021 ranks 2nd.

But still, THIS amount of rain feels unprecedented in my short 7 years in Colorado maybe because it is raining more on practice and game days, I don’t know. I hear people now talking about the mighty floods of 2013 and sharing photos. But, that was September. And yesterday, my phone pinged me with a weather notification, a flood alert for the next FOUR days!

So it’s wet, far wetter than normal. And yet, it seems pretty normal given the recent data.

We MUST adapt.

I love Colorado, the landscape, the people. Playing softball in Colorado however has proven to be a challenge, even for the best-equipped teams. What does June look like for softball in Colorado? So far, not so good. The forecast predicts 60-80% chance of thunderstorms over the next 10 days, including the weekend. Fortunately, we are heading to Florida where it WILL rain while we are there, but it’s turf and the rain in Florida comes and goes quickly.

Having lived in Florida, one learns to watch and read the weather and to plan. Everybody knows during Hurricane season you need a survival kit of water, duct tape, plywood, batteries, and pop tarts. In Colorado, softball teams need an indoor training facility and turf…more turf on fields.

Somebody had a bright idea to build a large bubble with indoor turf, but then ran into fire-safety issues and a host of other miscalculations that didn’t materialize into a winter season of protected play. Boo.

But still, as an organization of teams and coaches, we can predict, plan, and prepare. And we can adapt to teach our players other lessons about patience, discipline, trusting the process, and staying the course. The other option of course is to panic, because kids today have no shortage of examples on how to panic and throw a temper when things don’t go their way.

Coach Dave