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The Kickaround: Soggy start to season

03/12/2013, 12:00am CDT
By ERIC ANDERSON

In six days, prep girls soccer teams across Wisconsin can start practice.

And two weeks from today, they can kick off their 2013 seasons – assuming they can find a field in good enough shape for a game.

Reports showed between three and 20 inches of snow on the ground across the state Monday. In the south central part of the state, a weekend of rain brought down the snow depth but resulted in widespread flooding.

This obviously is not good for soccer fields, many of which look like they won't be playable for weeks. Here's what the pitch in my neighborhood in Oregon, just south of Madison, looked like on Monday (click on the photo for a larger image)

Snow and waterlogged soccer field

The bottom line: Coaches and players probably will need to get used to practicing indoors on gym floors for the next few weeks. It's a far cry from a year ago, when average temperatures in March were in the 50s and players had plenty of time playing outdoors before the season started.

I'm not sure there's anything the WIAA can do to help prevent situations like this: After all, the girls soccer regular season only lasts two months and its state tournament is the latest of all the spring sports (June 13 to 15). And we do live in Wisconsin.

The best bets for early-season matches likely will be in the southern part of the state and, of course, schools with artificial turf fields. Otherwise, the games could end up looking like this match from the Kazakhstan second division:

So how do the fields look where you live? Coaches and players, can you get something out of practicing in a gym? Log in and kick it around in the comments below.

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Tag(s): Prep Girls  News