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Break out the aspirin bottles.
When athletic events are cancelled, athletic directors face many headaches as they perform a juggling act to reschedule sporting events that are missed.
"In general, if school is canceled, athletics are canceled," said Dave Fulkerson, Warsaw's athletic director. "The first thing that is looked at is safety. We want to make sure we can get the fans in safely before the game and home safely after the game.
"It's not worth a basketball game to have fans going in the ditch to get there."
"It's a headache, and the more days we are off, the more difficult it is to reschedule," said Tippecanoe Valley Athletic Director Duane Burkhart. "We have definitely had some hectic times in the past week."
Once events are canceled, athletic directors then face several challenges, the first of which is rescheduling events.
"We have had to reschedule approximately 10 events," said Whitko Athletic Director John Mohr. "We just try to be creative, say a quick prayer and hope that things work for both schools' schedules.
"It's like preparing for a big test. You have to check and recheck and then check again to make sure the changes are going to work."
"Everyone is in the same boat," said Manchester Athletic Director Steve Shumaker. "All the schools are looking at rescheduling events, and everyone is working to get the games in."
"Another challenge we face is spacing athletic events," said Burkhart. "We try not to have a team playing four or five nights in a week. We try to space it out so the kids have ample time to prepare.
"Boys basketball is usually played on Fridays and Saturdays so we are trying to move some of them to Tuesdays. Girls basketball, on the other hand, has a more helter-skelter schedule so they are harder to make up. Wrestling and swimming do not have as many contests so they are not quite as bad to reschedule."
After rescheduling events, athletic directors then face another obstacle.
"First there's the challenge of finding open dates, and then once you find a date, you need to find officials for the games," added Shumaker, athletic director at Manchester High School.
Mohr, Fulkerson and Burkhart agree with Shumaker that finding officials is the biggest challenge when rescheduling athletic events.
"Finding officials available is a challenge," said Fulkerson. "Just because we have an open date does not mean that they do."
"The biggest thing about cancellations is that the officials scheduled for the original game are not always available for the rescheduled date," said Burkhart. "If they aren't available, then we have to search for someone else to fill in.
"It's really a supply and demand issue. With so many schools and games to make-up, it's difficult because there are only so many officials to go around."
"With so many rescheduled games it's a real drain on the officials," said Shumaker.
"The officials are doing a great job of adding dates to their schedules," said Mohr. "They realize that the games need to be played for the kids. We work with some great people who are willing to help in any way they can."
As the days schools have missed pile up, the time schools have to reschedule events grow slimmer as the end of seasons grows near.
"Right now swimming and wrestling are getting down to the end of the season, and there are not enough dates left to make them all up before sectionals," said Shumaker. "Some of those events will not be rescheduled at all."
Mohr summed up the difficulties athletic directors are facing this winter in two sentences.
"It's a most interesting journey," said Mohr. "I certainly enjoyed el Nino better than la Nina."
