I don’t know what kind of weather you all saw in your neck of the woods last month. But here in NC, we had one of the warmest months of January on record. Temps in the high 60’s and low 70’s were not uncommon. Practice was set to start on January 31st (we start early since we use baseball fields for pitches and try not to overlap much). We just KNEW that the weather would be beautiful right up until practice started. A few coaches half thought about starting practice early, because they knew the weather gods like to toy with soccer teams.

Sure enough. It was nice the first Saturday and then the temps dropped like a stone. It was below freezing the past two days as the second wave of teams started practice at 6:30. Needless to say we’ve had a number of teams decide that MAYBE they’ll start practice NEXT week! They’re calling for snow this Saturday. That would be a first for me – soccer practice while it is snowing.

I just have to chuckle though. Its always fun watching new parents used to other sports, that get called when the first drops fall, realize that soccer goes on short of lightening or a major winter storm. The ironic thing for us is the Spring is our most popular season. You would think that since Spring seasons in our area tend to encounter much more adverse weather than the Fall, we would have less players sign up. Not so. We have always had more players sign up for Spring than Fall. Every year. So when we have parents ask why we don’t just can the Spring season and play only in the Fall because of the weather, we tell them that it would be silly since its our most popular season, bad weather and all.

Here’s hoping the weather Gods have some mercy on us next week!