Man has it been cold outside! I know for those of you up North, this seems funny. But we start our Spring soccer seasons in February here in NC, for practice anyway. For mid February the average temperature range is usually 32°F to 53°F or so. But this year we’ve had an extended cold snap with temps hovering around freezing at 6:30PM (prime practice time) and winds sometimes gusting to 20 or 30+ MPH. Our fields are only protected on the northern and eastern sides so the windchill has been brutal.

Our U5 and U6 teams have rarely practiced, even during the day on Saturday. Our U10 and U12 teams have practiced on and off with even the Challenge teams staying home when the windchill hits the single digits. I had my U10s out this past Sunday and it was insane. The temperatures weren’t as bad as earlier in the week, but the wind was intense. Any drill where the ball left the ground was impossible because of the wind. My poor U8s came out on Wednesday, and it was just too cold. We kicked around for 20 minutes and called it a day. Note the wind speeds in the links above are from a local home that isn’t as exposed as our fields are. I hope to have a weather station put up at the fields soon that’ll track the actual field temperature and wind speed!

Anyway – nothing profound. But this season will be interesting because the teams haven’t had much time to get ready for the matches that start next week. The only good news is a warm spell forecast for the middle of this week. My teams better be ready for some pretty intensive instruction on Wednesday – highs close to 60!!!