Mother Nature wasted little time taking its toll on local spring sports. Area high schools began practice for spring activities on Monday. By Tuesday, they were already feeling the brunt of winter weather. Snowy conditions caused the cancellation of the second day of practice, but the impact will likely be more enduring. Warrenton has four sports — baseball, golf, soccer and track — attempting to get a strong start on preseason workouts. Wright City has each of those minus soccer. A few coaches have been able to adjust to the inconvenience, moving practices indoors. While that limits the amount of live-game simulation, it stills enables progress toward the season. For others, practicing indoors is rather complicated. “It’s sad that the better weather happened earlier in the month,” quipped Warrenton golf coach Rich Barton. Anticipating the weather interruption, he had planned a weight room training program pertinent to golf conditioning. He says he isn’t concerned about the team being ready for its debut at the Bogey Hills Invitational on March 25. “Fortunately we don’t have a team concept to focus on,” said Barton. “Most of the kids have a routine.” He says the team will take to the course as soon as the snow clears. “We’re going to hit the weight room early and do some training,” said Barton. Track coach Mike Spoede has empathy on Barton. “Golf is one big sand trap, but track is probably one of the easier sports to work with during snowy weather,” said Spoede. “There’s still stuff that we can do, and we’re not cancelling because of the weather.” He says it’s frustrating at times, but Spoede doesn’t believe these circumstances ultimately play a role in the team’s success. “We know that everybody we have to compete with is facing the same problem,” said Spoede. He says the conditions will probably effect the sprinters the most, with distance runners having stayed active through the winter. “It is kind of a fear of a spring sport that we do start so early,” acknowledged Spoede. The Warriors open their season on March 21 at the Wright City Warmup. Wright City baseball coach Dave Chapman says his team is accustomed to these adverse situations. “Unfortunately we’ve had a little experience in this area,” said Chapman. We’ve had to resort to practicing inside the past few years.” He will turn his team’s focus to hitting techniques, putting in significant time in the batting cages. The Wildcats will also take to condition indoors. Chapman is prepared to spend much of the preseason confined to the gym, considering what happened in recent springs. “Two years ago our first day on the field was actually our first game,” said Chapman. “That’s not out of the realm of possibilities this year.” He says the most obvious impact with not being able to practice outside may be on the early-season pitching. Coach Sue Wright laughs at the thought of the no-weather track, which is not getting much use this week. While she’s grateful to have the recently-upgraded facility, it is getting much use under five inches of snow. With the baseball team in the gym, the track team has had to find any open space it can to stay active. “We’re in the hallways doing cores and plies,” said Wright. “You can only make so many left or right turns.” During her 36 years of coaching, she has found plenty of ways to improvise. “It’s not a fun situation for the athletes or the coaches,” said Wright. “You have to be kind of inventive.” Wright does find at least one positive in having her athletes confined to a small space. “The best part is you do get a more captive audience when you’re giving instruction,” said Wright.