With the way that this Spring athletics season unfolded there has been more prolonged conversation about how to fix it, improve it, change it - however you would like to phrase the subject. Some opinions on the matter have been dropped on Twitter but the topic deserves a more long-form dictation than The Birdie can offer.

For those of you who don't follow it very closely - it can be hard to keep track of everything even if you do - baseball, softball, boys golf, girls soccer, girls tennis and track & field for both are the Spring sports.

T & F and tennis are able to compete indoors without radical planning, absurd amounts of travel or dramatic impact on the competitors. So while it may not be popular across the board (because what is anymore?) those can stay as they are. If there were to be changes to the calendar for them I would say just push the state meet back a week. That would just add to the already compounded way that the tournament schedule is currently constituted though, so again, keeping track as is makes the most sense.

Another tweak, because it could start the earliest and be the least impacted by weather, tennis could be given it's own weekend prior to the circus that is the first weekend of June currently.

But what about the four other categories?

One of the most common comments has been regarding interference with the Legion season. This Spring showed what could happen if the hand-shake deal between HS & Legion ball was broken as Post 400 took many of the best players from Davies & South, to the detriment of the schools. This wouldn't result in the highest level of ball possible but if the best players chose to forego their prep season in favor of traveling ball in a more thought-out way than this year seemed to be then every school would be on an even footing with each other & players would get an opportunity which would otherwise be unavailable. That was already the course that Abby Duchscherer employed and it worked out pretty well for her while Kindred hasn't missed a beat as they go for their fourth state title! One example does not a case make but it shouldn't be ignored either.

Safe to say that HS coaches would not be in favor of that so maybe they can keep things as is and suffer the uncertainty that can come from Winter's cling. It's a no-win situation but every outdoor sport on the Frozen Prairie must try to navigate it the best way they can.

Which leaves the final three.

Because softball, soccer & golf don't have the same constraint as baseball they should all be extended later into June. How they would be spread out is for people who get paid to figure out such things.

'But high school sports should line up with the HS calendar'

Except they already don't with the Fall starts in August.

I will grant to you that going early August to mid/late June would make for a long year. The goal of sports should be enjoyment & personal development so the ones who currently do Fall activities would have to decide if they want to add the commitment but that in itself would be a developing experience.

The advantage that ending in June could provide is that there isn't as much pressure to shoe-horn everything into a single weekend. Why the Activities Association has used the current model is a mystery. They could at least do them over two weekends but anything is better than six tournaments over the same three days.

Bottom line, Spring sports get the short-end of the stick every year. All the young men & women who put the time in to the events deserve them to be more than an after-thought at the end of the year. They should get the same level of priority by those in charge as football & basketball do.