The hardest season of the high school sports calendar is the spring season and it’s not even close.

Yes, the winters in Northern Indiana bring their own challenges, but the spring sports season is unique and that makes it especially difficult.

The weather makes it so.

Even the mildest winter here is still winter, and that means the ground is frozen and the default breeze that we get during the springtime is a cold one. We really don’t get relief from that until May, when the ground warms up.

The April rains that fall also do not mix with the spring sports menu.

In the fall, you can play soccer in the rain. You can run cross country in the rain. You can play football in the rain.

In the spring, baseball, softball, girls tennis and often boys golf get shut down in the face of the rain and storms that we are accustomed to in April and May.

And because the fall season starts in August, it gets a head start on its competitions that the spring season just can’t.

That means the fall has part of August, September and the first part of October as being pretty solid when it comes to weather conditions. Girls golf starts the earliest in the fall so it can finish before the winds turn from south to north and the weather starts to deteriorate.

The spring teams might be able to get outside and practice in mid-March, but the grass on the baseball fields and softball diamonds isn’t ready yet, most generally. Then toss in Spring Break in there, where most schools no longer require their spring athletes to stay in town and practice, and it puts players and their teams that much further behind.

So you are looking at a school like Warsaw, which has a later spring break than most, not really cranking up your spring sports contest schedule until almost the middle of April.

Conference meets and tournaments have to be finished before the postseasons begin, and that’s either the week before or the week of Memorial Day.

Athletic departments are then faced with cramming their teams’ entire spring schedule into a five or six-week window.

A rainy week, a rash of injuries, an athletic code violation — next thing you know, spring coaches have a mess on their hands.

And I would love to say that I have an easy and glorious solution to all of this, but there just isn’t one.

Not every school can have field turf on their baseball and softball diamonds, and even if they did it doesn’t fix the issues of trying to hit a ball with a bat that isn’t designed to be used below certain temperatures.

So what do you do?

You do the best you can with what you have, and you learn to be flexible.

And that applies to athletic department staff members, coaches, players and their families, umpires and their families…everyone with a vested interest in spring sports in Indiana.

It’s also wise not to make plans in the afternoons and evenings this time of year if you fall into one of those groups I just mentioned. Making plans that have a moderate chance of getting changed is very frustrating for all involved.

You have a schedule to start the year—write it on the calendar on the countertop at home with a pencil that has a really thick eraser.

My other piece of advice is that you make the most of the days when the weather is good.

Golfers, don’t tee it up on a sunny, windless day and double-bogey the first two holes.

Baseball and softball batters come out swinging when the wind is blowing out.

Runners, use that 20 mile per hour tail wind heading down the home stretch to boost you in your kick to the finish line.

Of course, guys, you could always solve your spring sports weather dilemma by playing boys volleyball—an indoor spring sport. It’s catching on, ya know!

Regardless, warm weather is coming soon. We’ll all enjoy it when it gets here.

But until then, have the hoodies cleaned and ready, make sure the rain jacket is handy, and keep repeating to yourself, “I love spring sports and I am brave for playing and watching spring sports.”