Georgia Southern’s own Luke Bryan had a hit song called “Rain is a Good Thing.” That may be the case at times, but fellow country superstar Alan Jackson also had a hit song called “Too Much of a Good Thing”, and that brings us to the rain Bulloch County has seen over the past three weeks.

The recent weather has called cancellations weekly of spring sporting events, that has had coaches, and athletic directors scrambling to try and come up with make-up dates, and creative ways to hold practices.

“We have been struggling at the plate, in the games we have been able to get in,” said Portal coach Russ Winter. “We can hit in our covered cage, but have hardly had any time in the field. Our bullpen work for our pitchers is out of sync as well. When we miss a whole week because of the rain, our guys aren’t able to work themselves up to strength on the mound where they’d be able to throw more innings.”

“We have been able to get a little hitting in the cages, and throw a few bullpen sessions,” said Statesboro coach Jeff Kaiser. “What we have really missed is getting in work defensively. We have struggled in the field in the games we have played, and you can’t get any better without the reps in the field.”

“For me it’s just the consistency thing of getting in the routine of playing a couple games a week,” said Southeast Bulloch coach Brandon Peterson. “It is hard to get in any kind of rhythm, and baseball can many times be about rhythm and repetition.”

Scheduling is also a major problem. In baseball pitchers are limited as to how many innings they can pitch in a week, and that makes it difficult to schedule multiple games, or doubleheaders in a week. Teams from as far as two hours away have to be contacted in enough time as to not waste four hours in a bus coming to Bulloch County, only to have to turn right around and go home.

“Games are really stacking up on the back half of the schedule,” Peterson said. “Our non region games we don’t necessarily have to reschedule, but our region games have to be made up.”

“We have tried to reschedule some of our games as Saturday doubleheaders,” Kaiser said. “Practicing indoors would be an option to help with the time we have missed, but we have two gyms and four soccer teams, as well as track to try and accommodate.”

“Our athletic secretary has been hit the hardest by all of this,” Winter said. “She doesn’t get enough credit for taking care of our athletic programs. From bus scheduling to fielding calls from parents wondering if the games are on or not, she has been working double time.”

Area athletic directors have been hard at work as well, as they attempt to juggle practice areas, and reschedule games.

“We try and consider the needs of each program, and how we can use covered spaces creatively,” said Bulloch Academy athletic director Pat Collins. “We have two gyms, a multipurpose room, and the weight room. What makes it even more difficult here at Bulloch Academy is we are Pre-K through high school, so we have elementary after school programs, as well as middle and high school sports all looking for a place to go.”

“This has been a logistical nightmare,” Collins said. “One of my old friends told me good coaches and leaders can plan, but if you are ever going to be a great leader or coach you are going to have to be able to adjust. We are having to do a lot of adjusting right now.”

The Statesboro Herald will update schedules as make up dates become available for all area athletics.