The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT April 20, 2011

While watching the snow, rain and hail come down at a high school sporting event, it makes me wonder sometimes.

As the schedules become flooded with postponements and cancellations, it makes me think, just what if some of the spring sports were moved to the fall?

IN A perfect world, the rain and snow stops around the middle of March to allow for the sun and spring-like weather to come in and get teams out of their respective gymnasiums and onto a field outdoors where spring sports belong.

That hasn't quite happened yet.

For most of the teams in the area, the first two weeks of practice are dedicated to practicing in a gym, which is not unlike what most are doing now.

With baseball and softball, it is very unlikely they'd be able to take away from fall sports like football and volleyball because those sports are associated with the fall season, no matter what weather problems that come up.

Football players could enjoy weather like this, but there's no way you can move the sport of football to the spring.

A chance that golf could be moved to the fall - an option which has been discussed statewide - might take some of those issues of rain and snow away from coaches that had to endure during last Thursday's Coeur d'Alene Resort Shootout.

On a day where Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Lake City faced off, the teams witnessed three seasons of the year, with the lone exception being summer. They didn't fare any better when snow joined them on the course during tournaments Monday at Avondale Golf Club and Hayden Lake Country Club.

"In the eight years I've been here, this is probably the roughest year I've been through," Coeur d'Alene boys golf coach Bryan Duncan said.

Golf is usually one of the first spring sports that wraps up its regular season, with the regional tournament in less than three weeks.

A FALL sport like soccer is one that gets played from spring to fall in most areas, with youth teams in the area starting now.

So why not move the soccer season to the spring? Boys teams used to play in the spring in North Idaho, but switched to the fall in 1998, as boys teams in southern Idaho were already playing in the fall.

Chances are, the weather may not be as big an issue as games are usually completed within a span of a month, much like the golf season.

I realize with all the postponements, that most games will not be rescheduled, most likely to unplayable field conditions.

In nearly nine years of covering high school sports, I have only seen a football game be postponed due to bad weather twice — with both of those due to lightning around the field.

And while many folks wait patiently, you’ve just got to wonder.

What if?

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via e-mail at [email protected].