With the crack of a bat and the shot of a gun, spring is in the air! It’s that time of the year that some students all look forward to, spring sports! The long trudge through winter is finally over and it’s time to get back outside and play. With spring comes new life, revived energy and fresh opportunity! The opportunity to demonstrate your skills acquired over the long off-season.

Howell High School offers a variety of spring sports including; Track and field, Baseball, Softball, Tennis, Girl’s soccer, and Lacrosse. Tryouts began this week and will run through Friday (or before, at the discretion of the coaches). But since we endured yet another harsh winter full of frigid temperatures and heaps of snow, it’s difficult to even find a place to hold tryouts. There are two main settings on the school’s campus that have been continuously fought over for reservation; the 10-12 building’s field house and the freshman campus gym. Both of which are no substitute for the sport’s natural “arena”, being outside. But the snow covered fields and ice slicked courts will have to wait until Michigan’s relentless winter comes to, a well overdue, end.

It’s been a real nightmare for coaches to get in the time they need to schedule practice with all the other sports venturing to achieve the same ends. Everyone’s patience gets tested with each turn of the season.

“I think the varsity team will greatly benefit from practicing indoors and at Turnin2. Much more can be accomplished there than in a gym,” says head varsity softball coach Ron Pezzoni.

For athletes, it’s even harder to get the playtime they need during the offseason. With coaches struggling to schedule practices, athletes have no way of practicing with the team, let alone get the workout needed to play at an optimal level. Yet, they are expected to showcase their best skills come tryouts.

“While I understand why we all have to share, it can be very difficult to get enough time in for the amount of training you need. I think that any training is better than none, but if more time was available it could really help boost our team’s performance,” says junior Haley Brewer.

“It was difficult and just so crowded. Then on top of that we were the last ones to go, therefore we came home way later than normal. I think that it affects some individual’s tryouts because it wasn’t an actual field which is just such a big difference. But as a team, it won’t hurt us because the weather is shaping up and soon we’ll be outside, says senior Blessings Amituanai.

Although, some athletes are more optimistic about the jam packed situations. They can see how difficult it is to find facilities to practice in during the offseason but agree that hard work and dedication will keep their teams’ attention in the correct place, despite the shortened amount of practice time.

“Surprisingly, it’s quite easy to configure with other teams. When it’s our time, it’s our time. The team’s focus doesn’t change just because a different sport is coming in or after us. Our goal is the same, no matter the facility or the timing,” senior Abby Lasagna says .

Spring sports are what everyone looks forward to after the turn out of winter. But there is far more that happens in the offseason no one realizes. It’s a struggle for all sports to find the time or place for late offseason practices, but it’s a battle that must be tackled for the good of the team. In the end, that’s what we fight for. That’s why we spend countless hours practicing and conditioning in the dirty, anomalous gyms, to be the best team.