Brrrrrrrrrrrr........
Now, before you start hating me.... I do like winter over summer. But I didn't think it was going to be this cold!!!
But with the adverse weather these last few week I guess I've had a little extra time because there have been so many area games cancelled because of the snow and cold.
Many of this weeks game in the Lakeland Conference were cancelled because of the weather. I can't blame anybody for cancelling games in this weather, but what I do have is some of the games that were cancelled this week.
The first is the St. Joseph/Benton Harbor game from Thursday night, it was supposed to be at Benton Harbor.
Now I understand that both St. Joe and Benton Harbor cancelled school earlier in the day. So I know there will be some people who believe that if they aren't at school they shouldn't play. But the weather Thursday afternoon was much better than it was in the morning when classes were cancelled. Plus it's not like St. Joe and Benton Harbor are 50 miles apart along the smallest country roads... They are less than 2 miles apart and last time I checked. Main Streets in St. Joe and Benton Harbor and Napier Avenue are probably some of the busiest roads in the Twin Cities. Are you telling me that nobody could get to Benton Harbor for the game?
I think the cancellation had a little more to do with what the weather already did to the Benton Harbor schedule. The Tigers were supposed to play St. Joseph, Muskegon Heights only this weekend, But they had a game last Saturday postponed to this week. Giving Benton Harbor 3 games in 3 nights. Now I know these are kids, but that's an awful amount of games to play in a short amount of time.
Next week the Tigers were scheduled to play two games in the Kalamazoo area. They are at Portage Central on Tuesday and at Mattawan on Friday. Well add another Kalamazoo trip on Wednesday as the Tigers make up a postponed game against Kalamazoo Central. In 4 days, the Tigers will make the trek up I-94 three times. The final of which is a divisional game.
Now if you do the math, that would have been 6 games in 9 days. and probably a practice or two in there. That's too much for a young student athlete.
The St. Joe Benton Harbor game has not been rescheduled yet. But don't be surprised if they look to play it when they can at least have a night off between them.
There is one other weather cancellation that really upset me this week. There's a bit of a story here. St. Joseph was supposed to host Kalamazoo Central in boys basketball on Friday the 9th. That game was cancelled, which was expected. Now here is the other part of the story which is the upsetting part. The game was made up on Tuesday night, Kalamazoo Central's girls team was also scheduled to play that same night at Lakeshore. The thing with the Kalamazoo Schools is they sometimes use charter busses to ferry kids to and from athletic events. The Kalamazoo Central girls were supposed to have use of that bus as they traveled to Lakeshore. Well they didn't get to use it, as they cancelled the girls game at Lakeshore and gave the bus to the boys team to travel to St. Joe. Now it doesn't seem fair to me... does it??
Isn't there supposed to be gender equity here? Where are those volleyball moms and that group that sued the MHSAA for equality?
Why is it ok to cancel a girls game and give the charter bus to the boys team to travel the same distance, on the same night, and in the same weather and road conditions? Some people said that it's becuase that the KC boys team had only played three games and they needed to play.
Now the Kalamazoo Central Boys team is one of the best teams in the state, they are 5-1 at this point, the KC girls were 1-5 when last I checked. Well, it's not the fault of the girls team that the boys haven't played that many games, so why make them sit at home.
