Imagine yourself on a sandy beach...

[Texas Aggie]

...then, make the sand become mud. That describes about 40% of our field in last night's game. The rest ranged from soft (40%) to wet (10%) to reasonably dry (10%). Interestingly, it turned out to be a good game -- my crew's second good game of the year. The other one was in heavy rain on a wet, swampy field. Yesterday it didn't rain and was sunny and somewhat windy for most of the day, but not enough to dry that pasture out.

We did the best we could to ignore the conditions, but my umpire had a difficult time spotting the ball with absolutely no yard lines in the middle of the field. I (R) and the BJ essentially had to "set up" before the play and map out where we were going to go. There was no sense in going through the heavy mud as we would sink and probably stay there indefinitely! I lined up many plays directly behind the QB and on many other plays directly behind the slot receiver!

The weather throughout most of Texas this fall has been brutal. Rain has soaked everyone and no grass fields have come through unscathed. 30 year veterans are telling me they've never seen anything like it -- numerous cancellations due to weather (lightning, mostly), game time and location changes to play on different fields, and bad weather games that get played. I think its time for even the smallest school districts to take a hard look at synthetic fields. There's a big down payment, but maintenance costs are less and there will be no worries about 1) getting the games in and 2) where to play the subvarsity games the night before the varsity games.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

There was no sense in going through the heavy mud as we would sink and probably stay there indefinitely!

C'mon, surely one of your other crew members would have helped you out, right?

Good story!

We get our fair share of rain here in VA too....and the fields get destroyed annually.....and re-seeded. One yr it was so bad the football coach wouldn't allow other sports teams to practice on the field, fearing it would ruin what was left.

Every yr our county puts synthetic turf down at another school or Rec Center. Money is tight and they haven't gotten to our school yet. Hopefully soon.

Last weekend my wife and I were driving past a local HS and it was pouring, I mean monsoon amounts of rain and wind. She said, "Look, there's a game going on."

I said, "In this weather?"

Sure enough, two teams were using their synthetic field and it was unbelievable. I felt sorry for those few fans and parents in the stands.... until I remembered I used to be one of them and due to the age of my kids, I no longer am!

Ok, I felt bad about the officials too.

[HLin NC]

We've had one dry Friday in WNC that we can recall this season. I've had mist, drizzle, showers, buckets and cats & dogs this year. Here are a couple of samples. That's me in the background of the second pic.

[Welpe]

I did a day of youth game last year (a year ago today actually) in the pouring rain. I don't think it let up for more than 10 minutes at a time that day. Fortunately, we were on a FieldTurf field and other than being soaked, the games went pretty well.

I am not fond of FieldTurf fields for baseball games but I do love them for football.

[NewGaRef]

Originally Posted by HLin NC

We've had one dry Friday in WNC that we can recall this season. I've had mist, drizzle, showers, buckets and cats & dogs this year. Here are a couple of samples. That's me in the background of the second pic.

Asheville High Cougars...... been very wet this year in GA also. I feel water logged.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by HLin NC

We've had one dry Friday in WNC that we can recall this season. I've had mist, drizzle, showers, buckets and cats & dogs this year. Here are a couple of samples. That's me in the background of the second pic.

Seems like any ol' game up here in the GWN.

[HossHumard]

I did a game (snowy) Thursday night here in Edmonton where a team kicked off early in the third quarter, forgot to retrieve their tee and when they needed it again in the fourth couldn't find it...had to kick the rest of the game off the field turf! Ahhhh, the joys of football north of the 53rd!

[umpirebob71]

I did a JV game a week ago on a field that was the consistency of oatmeal. A varsity game was played on it the night before during a steady downpour. It rained most of the night afterwards, so you can imagine what the conditions were like. I thought once that I had lost a shoe, but it only came part of the way off from the suction of the mud. The worst conditions I have ever seen.