PLANO — Trying to play outside this season has been a major league washout for many youth sports leagues this season.
After one of the wettest Octobers on record in North Texas, players and coaches scrambled to make up for lost time on a sunny Saturday.
"It was nice to see the boys out there today after several weeks of not playing, postponed games," said Mark Fairchild, the father of a player.
Twenty days of rain in October forced the cancellation of thousands of games affecting tens of thousands of kids and their parents.
The Greater Lewisville Area Soccer Association has alrerady missed 63 percent of its season. "This is the worst I've ever seen it," said Brad Kerley, president of the organization.
Some leagues have seen so many rainouts that they are considering refunds for registration fees.
Even with this weekend's welcome weather, many playing fields remain so saturated that cities are forbidding play for fear of damage to the still-soggy grass.
The Plano Youth Soccer Association played only one-quarter of the 300 games that had been scheduled for Saturday.
"We're going to try to get most of these games scheduled the best we can, but if can't, some of these teams will just have to play in the early part of the spring," said PYSA president George Ostrander.
To make up for lost time, some leagues are playing games on Mondays and at night for the first time. They are trying to squeeze in hundreds of games before the season runs out.
"If we can get the next two weeks, then we will be able to play out our season," Kerley said.
But that all depends on the weather. "I just keep looking at the sun and saying, 'Let's go, let's go!'"
E-mail jbetz@wfaa.com
