HANK WICKLEY
SPORTS WRITER
Last week Alma College shut down classes for two days, an occurrence that happens so rarely that the campus community barely knew how to react.
Each athletic team on campus was affected differently by the winter storm, and some had to make drastic changes to their schedules.
Men’s basketball had to reschedule a home game from Wednesday, the 30th, to Monday the 4th, which affected more than just the team itself.
“We plan our practices and choreograph dances to fit their basketball schedule, along with our own needs for our upcoming competition dates in March and April,” said Tracy Burton, coach of the dance team that performs at halftime of every home men’s or women’s basketball game.
“The game change means we won’t have a full team available on Monday, due to dancer’s class schedules,” said Burton.
Along with this change of scheduling, the halftime trophy presentation of the NCAA Helper-Helper award for the Scots has been moved to Wednesday the 6th.
As for many other teams, the extreme weather caused issues with practices.
“We have to practice off campus I didn’t want the team driving to Ithaca to the bowling alley,” said Kyle Woodcock, head coach of the women’s bowling team.
There were many other teams that had to move practices indoors during the winter storm, such as men’s and women’s lacrosse.
Both lacrosse teams prefer to be practicing outside during this time of year, but had to move things inside for the week in order to keep everyone safe.
However, there has been some positives to come out of the poor weather.
“We are primarily a indoor team until the weather improves outside for baseball,” said Jason Crain, head coach of the baseball team.
“The cold temps and class cancellations has allowed us to practice mid day instead of late at night,” said Crain.
“We have been able to practice earlier, allowing the team to be done by 6 pm,” said Denny Griffin, head coach of the softball team.
“It has allowed us to do some individual work which we might have not been able to accomplish,” said Griffin. While for some teams the weather caused issues with scheduling, for others it was an opportunity to get work done during the day and spend more time on important team building
