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That schedule changed the first official day of spring sports, which was postponed due to poor weather conditions. Snow, and the forecast of more to come, has Jim Standerfer, Elk Rapids High School athletic director, shuffling through the schedule like a deck of cards.

"It's spring in Michigan, what else can you say?" he said. "Some years we are very fortunate, and some years are like this.

"In fact, last year I don't think we had a cancellation."

Blustery conditions have basically forfeited the first week of baseball, softball, track, tennis and soccer. Standerfer now faces the challenge of trying to fit these postponed games into an already full schedule.

"We will attempt to reschedule every game," he said. "If it's a league game, that takes priority over a non-league game, to ensure the league standings.

"The first baseball and softball games were non-league, but we'll try and reschedule," Standerfer said. "But with nonleague games, we also have to fit into the other team's schedule in order to make up the game."

He is keeping a concerned eye on baseball and softball, especially, to make sure the players aren't overworked. There will now be weeks when both teams play three doubleheaders a week.

"I will never have them play more than three in a week, and even then, we still need to remember how much time we're taking away from kids doing their homework and being at home," Standerfer said. "For baseball and softball especially, I worry about our young arms throwing the ball that many times in a week. Especially in the winter, it's a lot of wear and tear on the arms."

He added soccer does have rules in place forbidding more than three games a week. But no rules are in place for other sports.

"We basically have six weeks, after this week, to fit events into," Standerfer said.