SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — The recent rain is forcing schools across Maine to postpone sports games and practices.
Some teams have not played a home game yet due to rain-outs.
"Every day you change something, it's not just a change for us or our kids, it's a change for our families," said Gorham High School athletic director Tim Spear. "It's been really miserable."
Parents feel the pinch, too.
"It's hard because I don't have my license so they have to take time off to pick me up and bring me back, so it's kind of all a mess," said Dom Garcia, a sophomore and tennis player at Gorham H.S.
More than half of the days in April have seen precipitation of some kind.
Friday afternoon, RSU 14 schools announced it had rescheduled all 11 contests intended to play that day.
"We will have made 60 changes(since April 15th)-to the original schedule, including both home & away contests, where the time/date or location has been changed, sometimes more than once," staff wrote in an e-mail to parents.
Staff wrote that teams will be doubling up on busses for away contests: staff said it was one way for them to get creative with rescheduling to put teams on busses going to similar locations.
"Thank you all for your patience and understanding as we navigate our way through these rough waters of Spring Athletics in Maine. This is likely the worst we’ve experienced since 2011 and then it wasn’t quite this bad," staff wrote.
The trickle down of changing one game impacts the opponent's schedule, coaches, bus drivers availability, custodians, field conditions, facility use, game officials, other school events, youth sport programs, as well as families.
"Scarborough High School Varsity baseball and we have had 4 games rained out and only got to make up one so far. The rain is killing us so lots of back to back games coming up," Mike Ames, the team's official statistics keeper, wrote in a Facebook comment.
"Yes, this is a pain the neck, but it could be a lot worse," said Spear.
Athletic directors have multiple factors to consider when deciding whether to cancel an event.
Those back-to-back games could have many impacts: overuse of fields could mean more costs to taxpayers in future years to fix facilities. Student-athletes playing day after day could lead to fatigue and possibly injury.
Alternatively, playing on the wet fields could also lead to injury and damaged fields.
Complicating these decisions is the deadline set by the Maine Principals' Association requiring schools to finish their regular seasons before playoffs.
Public works crews in Rumford are still treating and preparing fields after severe rains in late April.
Mike DiDonato, who maintains the fields at Gorham, said this year is one of the worst for consecutive days of rain. All the precipitation forces him to work harder.
"Typically you can get away with painting fields once a week. This year, it's been twice a week," said DiDonato.
He said he has had to aerate fields earlier than usual and re-seed the fields more often.
"It's absolutely an added cost to the district, but I feel like you can't put a price on safety."
Spear said safety is the top priority, but knows there are some things he cannot control.
"You just can't beat Mother Nature," said Spear.