Teams finding creative ways to keep active during weather delays

FARMINGTON − Over the course of the past two weeks, nearly every high school baseball and softball team in San Juan County has been forced to postpone or cancel games due to poor weather or travel constraints.

Just this week Kirtland Central, Bloomfield and Aztec baseball team and softball teams were forced to alter schedules because of rainy weather which either made field surfaces unplayable or restricted travel to and from various locations.

Kirtland Central softball was scheduled to play a doubleheader on Tuesday at home against Newcomb. Those games were called off Tuesday morning with no reschedule date yet set.

The Lady Broncos are scheduled to play Thursday in tournament action against Hobbs. Temperatures in southern New Mexico are far warmer than in San Juan, but winds are expected to be gust between 25 to 40 miles per hour later this week.

Both Navajo Prep and Shiprock High softball teams, which have played only a limited number of games thus far this season, are both scheduled to travel this week for tournament action at Santa Fe Indian School. The weather forecast for Thursday calls for a chance of rain and wind with high temperatures in the mid 40s.

Farmington High's Scorpion Invitational Tournament, which was played last weekend at Ricketts Park, got off to a slow start last weekend when overnight rains pushed first-round game times back more than four hours.

"You learn a lot about a kid on how he handles himself through these adversities," said Aztec High School baseball coach Eli Wyatt.

The Tigers opening game of the Scorpion Invitational last Thursday was originally scheduled for 4:30 p.m., but instead was played a little after 9 p.m. after grounds crews at Ricketts Park put in extra hours to get the field ready for play.

"The mental aspect to the game is vital. Working through challenges like those, while staying focused and working on getting better, is imperative," said Wyatt.

To that end, Wyatt tasked his team with batting practice at the Strike Zone Academy, an indoor sports facility in Farmington.

The team also took part in yoga classes during the protracted delay. Wyatt, in addition to being the head coach of the Tigers, is also a certified yoga instructor.

"I'm really grateful for the indoor facilities available in the area," Wyatt said. "Having those facilities was important for us. The yoga instruction is significant for mental toughness, strength and stability."

Weather delays are not uncommon in sports, but the mark of how successful a team is in the long run could well come depend on how athletes and coaches respond to those situations.

"We've spent more days on a basketball court than we have on our own field," said Piedra Vista softball coach Kevin Werth. "We just keep preaching to the girls we can only control what we can control."

The Lady Panthers, currently ranked second in the state at Class 5A and off to an 10-0 start to the current season, have spent much of the season in tournament action in Hobbs or in Albuquerque. The team is scheduled to begin tournament play on Thursday in Chandler, Arizona, where it has been raining for the better part of the week.

"We do what we can inside and talked a lot about hitting counts and how we approach each one and how they're different," Werth said. "We try to make most of our time defensively when we do get outside."

The Farmington High softball team, which has played in out of town tournaments each of the past two weekends, hasn't had to postpone any of its recent games, which has been an advantage for the team as a whole.

"We had the opportunity to play the past two weekends and the competition has motivated us to get better as a team," said Lady Scorpions head coach Tim Trotter.

The Lady Scorpions have a record of 6-2 on the season and will be on the road Thursday, weather permitting, to face Espanola Valley.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Local teams deal with recent weather delays as best they can