Apr032008
NHIAA shifts schedules
Filed under Uncategorized by gary fitz
They say if you don’t like the New England weather, wait a while. That’s apparently what the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association has done with its baseball and softball schedules. Both sports have been given an extra week to play games, and the softball tournament in all classes have been delayed for a full week. That wasn’t the case with baseball, which was already planning to play its four titles games on June 14 and June 15 at MerchantsAuto.com field in Manchester, which wasn’t available the week before. Pushing back the schedule has eliminated the problem of huge gaps between games, some over a week, in the previous baseball tournament schedules. But whenever you play any games in mid-June, you’re sure to have conflicts. "We have graduation on June 14 at the Verizon, and so does Alvirne and Nashua North,’’ Londonderry athletic director Mike Kobilarcsik said. "I e-mailed them (NHIAA) to make sure they were aware of the possible conflict.’’ The Class L baseball final is slated for June 14 at 5 p.m. The softball final is scheduled for 2:30 in Concord. A lot might depend on how much flexibility the NHIAA has with Fisher Cats officials to adjust starting times. The final Class L baseball games are currently schedule for May 21, creating a potential gap of 15 days between the regular-season finales and the preliminary round of the tournament. With the addition of another week, the last day to schedule a makeup game is now Sunday, June 1. But according to Kobilarcsik, the NHIAA has cautioned against moving the first week of the season to the end of the schedule. "If we have postponements, we’ll try to get them in as quickly as we can, not move everything to that final week,’’ Kobilarcsik said. "Obviously the schools with big issues are the ones up North who still have three feet of snow and ice on their fields.’’ And when it’s over, there will be bills to pay for the spring of 2008. "We’ve had to rent indoor space for sports like lacrosse, which is a budget killer,’’ Kobilarcsik said. "I guess it’s a good thing I’m retiring.’’ The NHIAA released a statement early Thursday afternoon explaining the changes in the schedule. "Due to the on-going problems related to the heavy snow from the past winter, the NHIAA has made some initial modifications to the seasons/tournament schedules for baseball and softball,’’ Executive Director Pat Corbin wrote. "As of this time all other spring sports remain unchanged. It each case, schools will undoubtedly be forced to alter existing regular-season schedules due to lack of playable fields/facilities.’’