Spring showers affect sports practices

Meem Mohsin,

HUB Staff Writer–

As Davis High School’s spring sports start up again, the sudden weather change is considered a negative effect when it comes to certain sports such as tennis or track, among others. However, for other sports, weather is not an issue.

Senior Sean Mishra is on the DHS varsity men’s tennis team. Mishra says that when it rains, his team is strictly not allowed to play or practice on the courts at all because the tennis ball becomes damp and loses its ability to bounce.

“When the puddles get on the court, the players tend to always slip and slide which is fun, but is irrelevant and a huge hassle when trying to play a match,” Mishra said. He explains that his team usually has conditioning in the gym or practices indoors when it rains, or practice is simply cancelled. According to Mishra, the team has been playing recently in the indoor courts with about four to six people at a time when it rains.

Unlike tennis, swim is one of the few sports where rain isn’t an obstacle, says junior Tyler Ujifusa, who is on the varsity men’s swim team for DHS. “The weather almost never affects practice. Our couch doesn’t ever cancel just because we are already in a pool so rain wouldn’t affect us,” Ujifusa said.

According to Ujifusa, the only time practice would be called off is if there was lightning because their coach does not want to take the risk of the team getting electrocuted if they were hit.

“When the weather changes, it sometimes makes me perform differently during practice. If it’s cold out, practicing isn’t as enjoyable because the pool is absolutely freezing,” Ujifusa said. However, if it is warm out, Ujifusa feels that it is much better to be in the pool because the temperature is normal, so he ends up enjoying practice a lot more and performs better.

Senior Kelly Chiang, who is on the DHS track team, claims bad weather such as rain does not affect track a majority of the time. “Practice usually isn’t cancelled when it rains, but sometimes, our workout might be shortened, or we might go to the weight room, but we always have practice,” Chiang said.

According to Chiang, last school year, the track team managed to have a meet in the pouring rain. A few field events such as triple jump were cancelled, but other than that, “we just dealt with it and ran through the awful rain,” Chiang said.

For Chiang, it is not a big deal to have to practice when the weather condition is not good. “I’ve gotten used to practicing through the rain, but sometimes the freshmen tend to complain about,” Chiang said.

Chiang claims bad weather condition has not affected anyone on the team when it comes to injuries. If the weather was dreadful enough that it would cause injuries, then their track coach would make changes to prevent it.