With film of their opponents, hours of practice and a coach-implemented game plan for game day, Loyola’s sports are prepared for almost anything — except a sudden down pour.

The three outdoor sports of tennis, baseball and track all have to deal with the threat of unwelcome weather altering their strategy or canceling the game altogether. Head baseball coach Gerald Cassard said that trying to prepare for the weather is a guessing game.

“It’s looking at the weather for the week and trying to play weather man and predict what’s going to happen.” Cassard said.

Even with their best guesswork, the baseball coaching staff cannot foresee what weather conditions may affect their other non-conference opponents.

“Faulkner canceled on us because of snow and ice on the roads,” Cassard said.

In that particular instance, Faulkner’s coaching staff had to make the decision that along with being unable to get a bus chartered to drive down to New Orleans from Montgomery, Ala., conditions were unsafe.

Even when baseball games aren’t cancelled, the field conditions can be troublesome for all positions. Marketing senior Mike Kelly, who plays in the outfield and pitches, knows first hand how difficult the rain can make things.

“If the mound gets muddy it can affect your footing,” he said. 

To make sure pitchers don’t lose their footing during their wind up and risk injury, the team often provides a tool to scrape mud off the bottom of a pitcher’s cleats. Kelly said that rain can force pitchers to grip the ball along the seams to make sure the ball doesn’t slip out.

On the importance of having a good grip and control of the ball, Kelly said, “Elevating pitches is the biggest concern. If the ball gets up (in the high part of the strike zone) the batter will just punish it.”

As baseball games are prone to being postponed due to rain, track is more tolerant of the wet weather.

“If it’s raining, it’s fine … They only cancel for lightning,” said track coach Andy Canegitta.

Canegitta has his long distance runners make only minor adjustments for the wind as well. “Sometimes you drift behind somebody to block the head winds, but that’s only for the distance runners. For sprinters they just stay in their lane so that strategy wouldn’t affect the sprinters.”

Canegitta also said that he is not worried about injuries when the ground is wet since the track’s surface is made of rubber and all his runners wear spikes on their shoes. Some of their track meets are indoors, making the weather outside not an issue.

Since cancellations are few and far between there isn’t really a specific program that he has set up for his runners to follow. His distance runners may keep up their endurance by doing a long run if a track meet is canceled. The sprinters, however, would get the day off from their work outs in order to save energy for the next meet.

Tennis coach Zubin Engineer has a similar attitude towards giving the players an extra off day when play is suspended. “We train Monday through Friday so we give them time when we don’t have a match to catch up with school work and just spend some time to get other things done.”

Engineer said that it often takes a week or more for a game to be rescheduled. He considers the brief period of inactivity a good chance for his team to take a breather and refocus for their next match.

Despite the different challenges that are presented to the three sports they all must find a way to deal with the conditions as they play and refocus on the game if it is postponed.

“I think with an outdoor sport it’s part of the nature of the way it is,” said Engineer. “When we get a chance to play we have to refocus and get the job done.”

Hasani Grayson can be reached at [email protected]