Northern schools are especially inconvenienced by snow days

Nick Christensen

Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005 | 9:16 a.m.

Southern Nevada may be the only part of the Silver State unaccustomed to rescheduling winter sports due to weather, but the weekend's problems in Clark County are insignificant compared to what schools have faced in Northern Nevada.

Schools in the Reno area were to be closed for the third consecutive day today, and next week's scheduled semester finals are delayed, too. That puts a wrench in athletics scheduling -- already off four days due to the snow, games are put on hiatus during exams.

When asked if this is something the scheduling gurus are used to, Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association assistant director Jay Beesemyer laughed.

"More like once every 20 years," he said. "In spring sports we deal with this all the time. It's a scheduling nightmare but we get through it. The fact that the school districts are saying if we're not going to school we're not playing basketball, it throws the schedule into a quandary."

Teams aren't even practicing. Reed football coach Ernie Howren said his school's administrators had asked everyone to just stay away from the campus as crews attempted to dig out the parking lot from the seven feet of snow that's fallen in Reno this year -- with up to another foot expected today.

The hardest hit school of all might be the one least affected by the snow -- Elko, 290 miles from the bulk of the other 4A North campuses, will have to play a massive make-up schedule at Reno.

According to NevadaPrep.com, the Indians traveled more than 1,300 miles in two weeks, assuming it doesn't snow. More.

"We want to play Cheyenne and Rancho and there's no buses, no this, no that," Durango coach Al LaRocque said. "We'll probably end up playing it, (Cheyenne coach) Larry Johnson and I want to reschedule it. Maybe a Saturday in a couple weeks -- we're getting towards the end of the season now."

The only team that got away with a nonleague contest was Bishop Gorman. The Gaels boys' team escaped to Southern California and beat Compton's Centennial High 54-45 at the Pangos Dream Classic in Fullerton.

"I thought there was a chance we wouldn't make it down Cajon Pass," Gorman coach Grant Rice said. "We left at six in the morning, we pretty much hit rain the whole time, we couldn't go real fast."

The Gaels made it just in time for their scheduled 3:30 p.m. contest, and advanced to an even bigger challenge -- Etiwanda (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) this coming Saturday. Etiwanda was ranked 10th in the U.S. in this week's USA Today Super 25.

"It'll be a tough test for us," Rice said. "The main thing is we're taking quite a few trips this year. We're going to start doing that every year. It's good for the kids to get that exposure against California teams. We're trying to get our name out there on the West Coast."

Gorman slipped a spot to 10th in USA Today's western regional rankings.

Still, said veteran Palo Verde coach Marc Hechter, even a cold, mucky field would have been better than what his Panthers team experienced four years ago in the Sunset Regional tournament against Bishop Gorman.

"Wind is worse than anything to play in," Hechter said. "Any game that involves technical skill and a ball is ruined in the wind."

The delay enabled Schulte, the 2004 Sun All-State Offensive Player of the Year, to recover and come into Monday's 58-43 win against Cimarron-Memorial in the second quarter and play about half the game.

Schulte had two field goals, went 5-for-7 from the free throw line, and had five rebounds in the Panthers' win.

Desert Pines remains the only varsity football vacancy open this winter.