EAST LANSING, Mich. — The weather is forcing school districts to scramble to find makeup dates for class, and for sports.
Cancellation policies vary from district to district; just because school is canceled, doesn't mean the games that night will be.
But this year, that's often been the case.
"It's what we signed up for when we moved to Michigan, but this has been a very unusual winter in terms of snow and ice, and everything affecting the school calendar," said MHSAA Spokesperson John Johnson.
Winter has caused a bit of a jam in the schedule for local high school sports.
For East Lansing high school, a Wednesday night usually means no games.
Tonight, they have four makeup games on the docket.
"Fortunately we have an extra gym, so we can play multiple games at the same time," said Nikki Norris, Athletic Director for East Lansing High School.
The Trojans are prepared in their scheduling as well. Like all schools, they account for potential snow days.
But this winter has been too much to handle.
"This winter has been unique in that we're out of open dates," said Norris. "We have restrictions on how often the kids can play in a week, so there's only so many contests they can have in a week."
Severe weather like this makes it tough for scheduling, especially as teams inch closer and closer to the postseason.
"We had a lot of team wrestling districts that were affected by the weather, and thus were conducted on Monday with regionals taking place tonight," said Johnson.
Norris says that despite the inconsistent schedule, student athletes and coaches are understanding and have been flexible during the last few weeks.
"No one practiced yesterday," said Norris. "All teams are going to play a game without having a practice the night before. That's happened already a few times this season."
When all else fails, schools can make up games on Sunday, but it's a day no games are scheduled, per MHSAA rules.
