Saturday, November 3, 2012 10:32 PM EDT
NEW BRITAIN ? There was a time, or so it seems to many who have been around high school sports for more than a dozen or so years, when nothing short of a storm like Hurricane Sandy could cause the postponement or rescheduling of a football game.
Yet heavy rain ? just an ordinary storm, no hurricane or tropical storm ? on Friday, Oct. 19, caused both Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern to have their scheduled games pushed up a day to Thursday, while at least a dozen other games across the state were postponed after the expected rain hit that Friday.
While fields can certainly face heavy damage when heavy rain and heavy, spike-wearing football players converge upon them, local parks department leaders say field condition is usually not the chief concern.
?The first, most pressing issue is whether it will be safe for youth to play on. Public safety is always our first concern,? said Bill DeMaio, New Britain?s director of parks and recreation.
He added that Veterans Stadium, where New Britain High plays its football games, is ?the best-draining football [and] soccer field in New England.?
The natural grass field hosts about 125 events per year, he noted.
DeMaio said that when it rains, he coordinates with the school?s athletic director to determine if a game needs to be postponed or rescheduled, based upon not just field condition, but how the weather may affect attendance or even if there?s a danger to players and spectators due to lightning.
?Together we make a decision whether to play a game or postpone it to the next day,? he said.
Even factors such as how the weather might affect the ability of New Britain High Marching Band to perform at the game are considered, DeMaio said.
?When crowds are a big issue right now for high school sports ? it?s really important it?s good weather, because otherwise nobody comes to the games,? he said.
DeMaio did say that protecting the fields, while maybe not the top concern, is something to be considered, especially since if the field is damaged one week, that damage would continue to affect the field and the teams? ability to play on it in the following weeks.
Ed Swicklas, Bristol?s superintendent of parks and recreation, said that Muzzy Field, where Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern usually play their home games, also drains very well and while field damage might be a concern early in the football season, the ground at this time of the year is solid enough that it?s unlikely to sustain much damage due to playing football in the rain.
Yet teams still tend to prefer not playing in a heavy rain.
Swicklas said Bristol Central was proactive in checking with him to see if it could use the field on Thursday, instead of waiting for the forecast heavy rain on Friday.
Usually, he said, he will check on field conditions no later than about 2 in the afternoon on a day with a 7 p.m. game scheduled, and if it?s still raining heavily at that time the game may be postponed.
?We?ll determine if it?s playable, then it?s up to the school to determine if they want to play,? Swicklas said.
With fresh sod over about 3,000 square feet and a dirt area where the infield is during baseball season, wet weather in early September can cause much more serious field issues, he said.
?It creates a mud bath,? he said.
Bristol Central?s scheduled game at Muzzy Field earlier this season on Sept. 28 was postponed a day due to rain.
?We can probably play in wet weather, but it?s going to be long-term damage for me,? Swicklas said.
It?s not just football that can damage the field. He noted that it usually gets chewed up pretty good when the Bristol schools play soccer doubleheaders there twice a year, part of 21 events scheduled on the field over 10 weeks in the fall.
?We take everything into account,? when making a decision whether or not to recommend rescheduling events, Swicklas said.
?We more or less side on caution in terms of weather,? he said. ?We watch the forecast closely and then try to make the right call.?
Over his more than 20 years in Bristol, he added, ?We?ve been pretty much [using] the same routine.?
Despite that assertion, St. Paul head football coach Jude Kelly, who has been coaching football at the high school level for the past 34 years, agreed that ?I do think that there seems to be more postponements [of football games in recent years] for different reasons.?
Especially for a program at a small school like St. Paul, where they have worked hard in recent years to create a playable football field at the school, ?You don?t want to wreck your field,? he noted.
Yet he agreed that factors other than field condition play more prominent roles in rescheduling games in recent years. One factor Kelly pointed to is more accurate weather forecasting and greater access to that information, to the point that most people can now view up-to-the-minute Doppler radar images to see what?s coming.
He also said postponements are often a result of what he said is an increasingly ?soft society,? in which people don?t want to be inconvenienced by having to sit through a rainstorm to watch a game.
?It?s more convenient to not play the game and that?s a shame, because that?s not what football?s all about,? Kelly said. ?Football?s about finding a way to get the job done despite the circumstances.?
On the other hand, from a coach?s standpoint, he said, ?You don?t want the weather to be the reason your team isn?t playing well.?
Having an opposite effect is the increased amount of artificial surfaces in use today at the high school level, which make field conditions a non-issue.
?Lots of times games are played when they normally wouldn?t be played, depending upon the facility,? Kelly said.
Either way, play or no play, he added, ?I?m just ready to react and adjust no matter what happens.?
Paul Angilly can be reached at (860) 584-0501, ext. 7271, or pangilly@centralctcommunications.com.
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Source: http://www.bristolpress.com/articles/2012/11/04/news/doc5095d10ba8f04254336296.txt
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