As winter sports wind down and the weather starts to get warmer, athletes begin to gear up for the spring season. Characteristically, the first week of spring sports is met with cold weather and rough tryouts, but this year athletes experienced record-breaking heat and lots of sunshine.
“The first two days were nice. I loved the beautiful sunny weather…it makes you feel alive and very motivated,” senior Imane Larhdiri said.
It is common knowledge amongst athletes that the first two weeks of the season, including tryouts, can be some of the hardest. Cold weather only adds to that difficulty.
“In my sport (tennis) you have to have warm hands and in the past few years it’s been a struggle to keep my hands warm and play at the same time,” junior Russell Haynes said.
You can often find athletes bundled up in coats, gloves, and hats despite having a tough workout ahead of them. In track and field, the coaches actually require athletes to wear sweats to every practice in order to keep their muscles warm while running. Due to this many athletes were preparing for the worst when it came to those first few days of tryouts.
In a twist of fate, instead of harsh winds and bitter colds, Monday was met with record-breaking heat and tons of sunshine. According to the St. Louis Public Radio, the high of 86 degrees on Tuesday soared past the previous 79-degree record set on Feb. 27, 1981. It also broke the record high for the month, which was 85 degrees, set in 1972. Monday’s 80-degree high also broke the daily record set in 1996.
In light of this, coach Glavin announced a sweats optional day for all track athletes. This came as a surprise to some of the senior athletes as usually, Glavin is very strict on this rule unless it is really hot out.
“I was really surprised because I’m used to the sweat rule so I came 100% prepared,” Larhdiri said. “I mean I was dressed in my sweats already so I had to take them all off. But I don’t think we will be seeing much of that from here on out until its good weather 24/7.”
This beautiful weather did not last long though and once Wednesday hit, it started to get cold again. With highs in the upper 30s, things were finally getting back to normal and athletes had to say goodbye once again to the beautiful sunshine.
“It was very Missouri-esque. It was like the groundhog playing a trick because he knew,” freshman baseball coach Wheeler said. “He didn’t see his shadow made us all excited and then Missouri was like ‘No I don’t think so.’”
Spring sports are now in full swing and we wish all the athletes luck in their upcoming season.
