EDWARDSVILLE – Winter Storm Gia arrived almost on time Friday afternoon, and as expected, it’s a visitor that’s not really welcome.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
The storm, which ultimately may produce between six to 13 inches of snow for the region, according to reports from The Weather Channel, caused a massive postponement and cancellation of games in all sports around the Riverbender.com area.
Among the boys’ basketball games postponed were Granite City vs. Kansas City Center in the Sedalia, Mo, Smith-Cotton Classic, Metro-East Lutheran at Greenville, Belleville East a Marquette Catholic and Edwardsville at Alton. In addition, a Saturday game between Marquette and Father McGivney Catholic was postponed, and will now take place Feb. 14 at the McGivney gym.
The girls’ game between the Tigers and Redbirds was also postponed and will be played Jan. 15 at the Redbirds Nest. Other girls’ games postponed were St. Louis North County Tech at Granite City and Father McGivney Catholic at Metro-East Lutheran. The Griffins and Knights will play each other on Jan. 29 at Hooks Gym.
In other sports, the entire schedule of Mid-States Club Hockey Association games, including Edwardsville vs. Lafayette at the Kennedy Recreation Center at Suson Park in South St. Louis County, was postponed, as were the IHSA boys’ bowling regionals at Salem and Taylorville; with a rescheduled date of Monday for both. Also postponed was a dual wrestling meet between CBC and Edwardsville at the Jon Davis Wrestling Center, and a quadrangular meet involving Alton at Kirkwood. The Cadets and Tigers will wrestle now on Tuesday night, while a Kirkwood make-up date hasn’t yet been announced.
Marquette Catholic Athletic Director Jack Holmes said he thinks the key in bad weather situations is to stay ahead of the game and contact coaches ahead of time when it looks like cancellations will occur.
“I don't know of anyone playing Friday night or this weekend,” he said. “I started early and contacted both schools we were playing Friday and Saturday and it was easy to find dates to reschedule. If you wait until the moment things are canceled you end up with a lot of headaches. We absolutely want the kids to be safe and we hope they enjoy the day off.”
It isn’t always an easy decision to call off a game, In the case of Alton Athletic Director Jeff Alderman, it starts early in the morning.
“For example, the first thing I did was to get in contact with Alex Fox (the Edwardsville Athletic Director) at 6:30 this morning,” Alderman said. “We both noticed that the snow was supposed to start much earlier than anticipated.”
The decision was made easier by the administrations of both schools when they decided to dismiss school early.
“About 7:30, 7:45, the administrations of both schools decided to let school out early, and then it became a no brainer,” Alderman said. “Since we were the host team, we had to notify the officials, the ticket takers, the scorekeepers and the custodians about our decision. We get that all taken care of, and then we start to work on rescheduling.”
Since it’s a Southwestern Conference game, finding dates for both games was relatively easy, but with nonconference games, it can get a bit trickier.
“Sometimes, we hope to reschedule, and find a date that’s compatible with both schools,” Alderman said. “We try our best. In this case, the girls have about a month left in their season, and the boys have a little bit longer, so we were pretty lucky there.”
Scheduling official for makeup dates can be the most difficult thing sometimes, and in the case of the Southwestern Conference, there’s help available.
“Since it was a conference game, we have a commissioner that works with a list to find officials for a game,” Alderman said. “That’s a thing that’s taken off our table.”
Fortunately, a full crew of three officials was assigned to the girls’ game between the Tigers and Redbirds for Tuesday night, and a crew has yet to be assigned for the boys’ game, but Alderman will know who the crew is in the next few days.
The task of rescheduling can be a headache, especially in the winter season, which can have limited dates to reschedule games.
“The spring sports have some rain days, where we can reschedule games easily,” Alderman said. “In the winter, it’s much more unpredictable, but we have a few dates that we can work with.”
And postponements don’t just effect basketball – it affects every winter sport when a snowstorm passes through the area. Alderman gave the example of the Redbirds boys’ bowling team, who are getting ready for its IHSA regional that was eventually postponed.
“Basketball usually gets the big notice,” Alderman said. “But in the case of the boys’ bowling team, we were planning on sending them up to Decatur the day before so they could get to the site and get some practice in. Fortunately, the regional was postponed to Monday. And also, we have the quadrangular wrestling meet in Kirkwood that’s now off.”
The Redbirds’ athletic program consists of five winter sports, and the unpredictable weather can indeed cause considerable trouble. That’s when good organizational skills and keeping everyone informed comes in very handy.
“It takes a lot of calls,” Alderman said, “a lot of contacts, a lot of effort and our organizational skills to stay on top of everything.”Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
