Most states would kill for the weather West Virginia is having at the moment. With cloudless afternoons and little to no rain, you'd think high schools would be embracing the chance to play baseball and softball games under perfect conditions. But in actuality, the lack of precipitation has been a real headache for coaches around the state.
As the Herald Dispatch reported, the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission has a regular-season game cap in place for teams, which means teams throughout the state can only play a maximum of 32 games.
With all the rainouts and weather issues the state has dealt with in the past, coaches schedule more than the allotted 32 games, in an effort to get as close to the cap as possible. In the past that hasn't been a problem, but this year is an entirely different story.
Coaches are having to make difficult decisions, especially when it comes to tournament play. One softball tournament was already canceled after a team had to drop out after the realized they were too close to the regular-season cap, due to a lack of rainouts.
In softball action, Cabell Midland was scheduled to host Sluggerfest over the weekend and at the beginning of the week, there were eight teams entered.
However, one team dropped out early in the week and another offered to drop out to make an even number of teams, bringing the number to six. After a couple more teams didn't want to travel for a six-team tournament, that number became four, forcing the cancellation of the tournament.
This is turning into the norm for teams throughout the state, as schools continue to juggle schedules all the way until the start of the postseason. It's rare that you see a teams scrambling to make decisions on games due to ideal weather conditions, but when you have at least a couple of weather-related cancellations per year, adding more games than you need becomes the norm.
It just so happens this year the state is dealing with a perfect storm that's wreaking havoc on teams throughout the state. While this wouldn't be a major deal come the postseason, the Herald Dispatch noted that some teams schedule regular-season games in-between sectionals and regional games, meaning they could be stuck with tired arms if they have to play a loaded schedule one week.
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