Following a spring full of weather-related postponements and cancellations, it seems the trend is going to continue on into the summer.
The Jefferson City softball program held its annual summer camp this week, wrapping up Friday, and it was plagued by weather issues.
But the Lady Jays' coaches made the best of a bad situation and kept things moving in the right direction for campers in kindergarten through ninth grade.
"It's shuffle here, shuffle there, but I'm really happy with how everything has gone," Jefferson City coach Lisa Dey said.
A perfect example came in the final two days of camp. Scheduled to be indoors at the Got Skillz indoor training center Thursday and at Riverside Park on Friday, those events ended up being flip-flopped after some careful attention to weather forecasts.
"I'm very thankful to (the) Parks and Rec (Department), they did a lot of work to those fields," Dey said. "With the rain we had, we might not have gotten on other fields, but they had the new surface there (at Riverside) and that was nice. Even when it had rained, we were OK there.
"Then Mitch (Northway) at GotSkillz helped us adjust at the last minute. ... Nothing was canceled and we got everything in, so we can't complain. So a big thanks to them."
Dey also got some assistance from an assistant.
"Coach (Zach) Miller, my assistant, I give him the reins of running everything (with the camp) and he does a great job of putting everything together," she said. "From doing this sport as long as I have, you have to be able to adapt. The weather is a big part of it. ... I feel really good about how everything's gone."
The event boasted a healthy dose of campers.
"We were over 100, so I'm pleased with that," Dey said.
And like most years, it was one of the first in any sport to finish.
"For forever, it seems like we've hit it right as school is out, right after Memorial Day - we go Tuesday through Friday and we're done for the summer," Dey said. "We try to get it done as soon as possible because many of these kids play all summer on the weekends. And a lot of kids that play Parks and Rec still have league games and hopefully they can take some of the stuff they get throughout this week and apply it to their final games. It would be nice to see them say, "I learned this at camp.'"
As far as the Lady Jays go, they're limited to the 25-day contact rule set by the Missouri State High School Activities Association. But with most of them getting plenty of playing time on the weekends with their travel teams, time with the high-school squad is much more basic.
"We're working out Mondays and Thursdays in the morning at Capital Region Healthplex, we do the BodyPump class there and then after that have open field," Dey said. "We're going to have a few games scheduled here and there with different teams around the area, then the kids are playing (travel ball) every weekend."