Sue Sitter/PCT Rugby High Panthers’ track and field coaches hold a meeting with their team before practice in the Rugby High School gym.

Although snowstorms have thrown Rugby High School Panthers spring athletes a curve ball and forced them indoors, their coaches say changeable weather comes with the territory in North Dakota.

Panthers track and field and softball teams were hard at work practicing in the high school gym and Rugby Armory on April 25, doing as much as they could to prepare for possible meets and games later in the week.

“We’ve had years when we didn’t have meets until late April to early May and that’s where we’re at now, just trying to get the meets in that we had scheduled,” Panthers track Coach Bill Jansen said.

Jansen, who coaches the Panthers’ girls’ team, met with the boys’ track coach, Scott Grochow and other coaching staff to give updates to the athletes before they began their practice.

The schedule canceled meets in Fessenden and St. John, moved another meet to Shiloh Christian High School on April 28 and another to Rugby on May 3.

“We had meets scheduled, but the places they were scheduled for are up north and they’re not ready to have meets up north,” Jansen said. “They’re ready in the west, in some places. Bowman got more snow, and they’re supposed to have a meet Thursday. They’re not going to have a meet Thursday.

“Bismarck is in better shape and at Shiloh, they have turf,” he said. “They don’t have grass, so it’s a little easier to host a meet, less grass to deal with.

“If you can tell us what the weather’s going to do, we’ll know how the season’s going to go from now on, but we’re just going to have to be prepared,” he added, smiling. “We’re almost into May and we’ve only been outside for one full day of practice.”

Jansen noted although track and field teams in the southwestern part of the state had seen heavy snow from two blizzards, the weather there warmed up more quickly before that and had the advantage of one more month of outdoor practice to get in shape for the season.

“When we went to Beulah and Hazen (for meets in early April), many of those teams that were there had been outside a lot. Up here, we had not,” he said. So, we’re way behind other people as far as that’s concerned.”

However, Jansen pointed out schools on the eastern side of the state have dealt with flooding in recent weeks.

“I’m from Valley City, and I can remember when I was in high school, we had a couple of springs where they were sandbagging for a week around the tracks,” he said.

“So, it is what it is. We just have to be as prepared as we can. When we can get outside, we’ll get outside,” he added. “We’ve got a month until state. We’ll make the most of what we have left.”

Assistant Coach Dave Schneibel, who works with the team’s shot put, discus, and javelin competitors, said, “We had two practices outside. We’ve been mainly throwing inside and weightlifting.”

“We can’t throw discus indoors,” he said. “We need to be outside. And the kids have hardly touched the javelin. They need to be outside with that.”

Steve Mueller, who coaches the team in jumping events, said, “It’s been hard for kids to train and keep them focused. Because they’re not doing any pit entry drills because they can’t jump into a pit right now.

“They’ve been training hard,” he added. “We’re going to have a compact season, though. But I think we’ll be okay. As long as we peak in May, that’s all we really want.

“They train in sprinting, running drills, strengthening drills – that kind of thing they’ve been working on,” he noted. “You can work on the bounding drills for the triple jump and long jump; you just can’t work on the landing.”

“But,” Mueller added, “The kids will be ready.”

In the armory, softball coaches Miriah Yoder and Olivia Erpelding worked with their team on batting skills.

“We’ve got the machine out today and we’re trying to simulate as much game play as we can,” Yoder said, as Erpelding fed softballs into a machine that shot them out to batters inside a makeshift mesh batting cage.

Other players practiced their swings and batted softballs into nets.

“It’s hard. Inside is never as fun, especially after being outside,” Yoder added.

“We’re hoping to play four games at the end of this week in Bottineau,” she said.

The games at Tommy Turtle Park would make up for some of the ones canceled by the more than one foot of precipitation the region had seen since mid-April.

“It’s not a sure thing yet, but hopefully, the weather works for that,” Yoder said of the Bottineau games.

“Then, it’s just up in the air,” she said of the schedule. “Wherever we can get good ground is where we’re going to go and if we have to play two varsity games in a day, that’s what we’re going to do so we can get our sub-regional games in and get ready for the regional tournament on May 19.”

Yoder called the Panthers’ 1-1 early season record “a good start.”

“Just pray that it warms up outside,” she added, smiling.

Panthers Golf Coach Mike Santjer said the snow limited the team to four practices on the golf course.

“We are hoping to get back out to the driving range on Thursday,” he said. “We have been using the Ely gym for practice.

“We have not had any golf meets yet,” he added.

The snow and soggy ground has also put the Panthers’ baseball season on hold.