Is It Time to Move Baseball, Softball Out of Spring?

This spring has not brought the best weather with rain canceling baseball and softball games for most of the past week so the question out there is this, should baseball and softball season be moved out of the spring to either the fall or the summer?

The state of Iowa plays prep baseball and softball in the summer, beginning in late May and ending in July. Could the time be now to make a move like this?

One problem with the idea according to Cary-Grove baseball coach Don Sutherland is the sheer length of the state of Illinois itself.

“Our state is so long and I’m on the Illinois High School Association board and we talk about this a little bit and the coaches in southern Illinois are like what are you talking about. They’re out Day 1 in March,” Sutherland said.

“We wouldn’t mind it up here being a couple weeks later but it just won’t happen because southern Illinois isn’t interested in it. That‘s what I think the problem is with changing. I know there has been talk about it but just got to battle the cold weather I guess.”

While Sutherland brings up the length issue, softball coach Tammy Olson brings up an important point about keeping players interested in staying around home in the summer and the fact that a fall move puts the end of the season weather in jeopardy.

“The summer would be hard trying to keep the kids focused and with their travel seasons,” Olson said. “I don’t know if that would be beneficial in the long run for the girls and in the fall, it wouldn’t bother me one bit but the state series will be played in awful weather so you are talking football weather when you started it and that’s the tricky part.”

Could the seasons be started May 1 and ended around Aug. 1 just in time for fall sports practices to begin?

What about the seniors who are going off to college and are getting ready for that move?

There are many interesting debates to be had with more questions than answers.