Apr 7, 2024
A portion of the Belpre Soccer Club facilities is pictured underwater Thursday. The league’s opening day, originally scheduled for Saturday, was postponed due to the flood. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
With the Mid-Ohio Valley taking on water, local sports leagues and facilities are doing their best to salvage the spring season.
Areas near the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers have been severely impacted by flooding, and several fields were completely underwater as of Friday afternoon.
Marietta has been hit as hard as anywhere. MHS athletic director Cody Venderlic said the high school baseball and softball fields, the Don Drumm Stadium track, the tennis courts and crew team’s boathouse have all been affected by the flooding.
“Our rowing program had to move everything out of the boathouse,” he said. “We were kind of in a rush to clear everything out as the floor waters were coming up. The rowing team has a great support system in the Harmar Rowing Club, plus community members and volunteers have been a tremendous help as well.”
Venderlic was hopeful that the Tiger Navy will be able to host its annual Lindamood Cup Regatta Saturday.
For baseball and softball, it’s a matter of waiting for the flooding to recede, assessing the damage and getting to work on cleaning it up.
“We still can’t actually drive to the baseball field as the roads that lead there are covered,” Venderlic said. “The last time I looked the junior high softball field was completely underwater. The high school field was back, but still had a lot of water sitting in left and right field.
“Once the flooding goes down, it will take a ton of work to get it in condition. We’re trying to get by until we can get back on the fields.”
Marietta had to cancel its Bob Annasenz Invitational track meet scheduled for Friday.
“We had to completely load up all of Don Drumm and get everything out of the tunnel,” Venderlic said. “It’s the first track meet in five years I’ve ever had to cancel. I’m hoping we can get back out there next week. The track will need to be sanitized. Who knows what germs and fungus we’ll have to keep our players safe from.”
As for tennis, Marietta College athletic director Larry Hiser said the courts will need power washed once the flooding recedes.
The MC softball field is completely underwater, and both the softball and baseball teams had to postpone their games over the weekend. However, Hiser said, the baseball facility is in great shape, but the roads leading to it are not.
“Access is limited because the roads in are flooded,” Hiser said. “We’ve made a couple changes turning home games into away games. We’ve gotten great cooperation from other athletic directors and coaches.”
One school that has seen the flooding trend in a positive way is Fort Frye. After having their baseball and softball fields completely under water by midweek of last week, the Cadets got to work Thursday after the flooding receded.
“Everything is back down,” said Fort Frye athletic director Matt Tullius. “We actually had a middle school track meet (Friday), and the softball and baseball teams were back at practice. We’re rocking and rolling, luckily. We didn’t really sustain any major damage.”
Post-flooding clean-up includes cleaning debris out of fences, pressure-washing surfaces and hosing off dugouts.
“Our custodial staff has done a great job,” Tullius said.
It hasn’t just been high school and college sports that have been affected. Youth soccer clubs all over the area are feeling the impact.
The Belpre Soccer Club facilities got completely covered in water, putting a halt to the beginning of the 2024 spring youth season.
“Opening day was supposed to be (Saturday),” said Rick Seebaugh, the club’s vice president. “We had to postpone that, but we’ll be able to salvage the season. We won’t know the extent of the damage until the water recedes. Our paint shed has probably three-and-a-half feet of water in it, so we’ll lose some stuff in there, but nothing that will hinder the season.”
Belpre Soccer Club has more than 600 kids signed up, from U4 to U20. They use 14 fields for games and practices.
“The people on our board take this seriously,” Seebaugh said. “We want to make sure the kids have a great experience. We’ll do what it takes. We made a Facebook post on our group and had a lot of people offer to step up and clean up. It’s just a matter of when we can get in there to make the difference.”
The league typically plays its matches on Saturdays. Depending on how long the season is delayed, they’ll decide whether or not to extend the season to make up games. Seebaugh also said playing some games on weeknights could be an option.
Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@mariettatimes.com.
Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox
Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox
Copyright © News and Sentinel | https://www.newsandsentinel.com | 519 Juliana St., Parkersburg, WV 26101 | 304-485-1891
