Bend’s prolonged snowstorms have forced spring sports at Summit High School to adapt in order to keep up with neighboring teams in the valley. Athletes have been forced to either freeze, relocate or adapt to the snow in order to continue practicing.
Summit’s baseball team has been greatly affected by the cold weather, with home games being moved to alternate stadiums such as Vince Genna Stadium.
“Baseball doesn’t have a turf field so when it snows it’s a constant cycle. The grass is literally mushy, and it’s basically not in the ground — it’s a swamp,” said Slater de Brun, a Summit junior who is committed to Vanderbilt University to play baseball.
De Brun explained that if the Summit baseball field were turf, the snow would affect their practice less and they could shovel the snow off before practice began. Not only is the baseball team unable to play games at home, they are also unable to practice on the field. Instead, they have been practicing in the Summit gym, where they trade traditional baseballs for wiffle and foam balls.
“We play baseball inside the varsity basketball gym. The outfielders can’t catch play balls because the ceilings are so low, and they just hit the top. We can’t really hit because we’ll break windows,” said de Brun.
Although the snow has affected the baseball team’s start, de Brun is confident that the baseball team will be fine for the remainder of the season.
Summit’s lacrosse team has faced similar challenges. However, since the team practices on the turf football field, they have been able to continue practicing outside.
“We shoveled the fields before practice because there was no field to play on,” said Willow Albert, a junior at Summit and varsity lacrosse player.
Since the lacrosse team has had to shovel snow off the fields before practice, they have modified their drills to accommodate a smaller space on the field. However, Albert shared that she isn’t worried about how the snow will affect their season.
The Summit rugby team is enjoying just about everything except the temperature of the snow. Claire Coughenour, a junior at Summit High School and rugby player, is worried about the team’s preparedness for the season due to three practices being canceled.
“After practice, I was freezing, but practice was still fun. It just makes it harder to work on what we need to work on although we still pulled through,” said Coughenour.
Carlie Jenkins, a junior at Summit, is a new player on the rugby team. She appreciates the cushion that the snow provides when tackling, especially in a sport like rugby where there is no padding. On the flip side, tackling in the snow leaves players wet and cold for the rest of practice.
“Our coaches try to keep tackling towards the end in order to keep us warm, although it’s necessary to practice tackling every practice in order to keep us all safe during games,” explained Jenkins.
Due to other teams not wanting to travel across the pass to Bend in snowy weather, rugby matches at the beginning of the season have been scheduled in neighboring towns such as Corvallis and Portland, but the second half of the season will be played almost exclusively in Bend.
Regardless of the snow, Summit’s spring sports have persevered with baseball winning their first home game against South Eugene 5-1, the women’s rugby team winning two matches in the Portland Jamboree, and the girls lacrosse team performing well at the Portland jamboree.
