As students enjoyed their February snow days, more than nine inches of snow packed down on the sports fields and facilities of Lawrence High.

With spring sports tryouts beginning Feb. 25 — the day before USD 497’s fourth snow day of the year — conflicts arose for outdoor sports: baseball, softball, girls soccer, boys tennis and boys golf.

With girls and boys basketball still wrapping up their seasons, indoor space was limited.

“Winter sports weren’t over yet, so they had priority on indoor facilities,” athletic director Ron Commons said. “And then being able to find a place for each squad to have some time indoors — it’s not an ideal situation”

With this being the first experience with this much snow on the turf fields, members from various teams attempted to clear some of the snow, not knowing the effects it could have on the turf.

“Any time you piled it up by rolling snowballs or taking snow shovels and making a pile, that snow is still present,” Commons said. “Whereas if we left it alone and let mother nature take its course, then it would have been quicker and easier to get back onto the facilities.”

Most were unaware clearing the snow would have negative effects, as coaches encouraged teams to do so. Teams set out with shovels and snow blowers, making piles of snow, or even giant snowballs.

“When you rolled a snowball that is four or five feet in diameter, it is now thawed just enough during the daytime so that at night, it freezes back to the fibers and now the ball can’t be rolled for fear of pulling up seams or the turf itself,” Commons said.

Commons said he was unaware of other safe alternatives to clear the snow.

“We have talked to some people since this has happened [and] they were able to clear it off so there was only two or three inches left and therefore that would speed the process up with mother nature taking care of the rest of it,” Commons said. “The hazard we have is with the metal blades getting caught on the [turf] just like it would in your living room [carpet].”

Some may see indoor tryouts and practices for outdoor sports as a disadvantage, but Commons assured that most schools LHS competes with are in similar situations.

While teams are slowly being given permission to use their fields, or portions of it, Commons asks coaches to be cautious in the future if this situation arises again.

“They need to ask questions first and not necessarily try and come up with their own solutions by themselves,” Commons said.