Scott UnashIs this March??!!
 
Often through the year, people will come up to me and frequently ask for my highlights from the high school sports seasons. There are usually some set and pat answers, such as a great game or some top-flight performers, but for the 2011-12 year so far the big story has been one usually very fickle lady who has been on our side this year.

Mother Nature.
 
In all my years as an athlete, spectator and as a broadcaster covering sports since the early 1980s, I have never seen a weather year like the one we are experiencing so far. Now let me say that I hope I'm not putting some sort of a hex on our good fortune by writing this column, since we still have most of the spring season and the summer sports yet to be played, but this has been an amazing weather run so far this year.
 
It started off during the fall. Usually by October of the football season we have run the gamut as far as weather is concerned with heat, cold, rain and sometimes even snow. But this football season was amazing.

Short sleeves were being worn toward the end of the regular season, basically there were no rain-soaked Friday nights during the pigskin campaign for 2011 and there were no subzero nights during the playoff run. The state cross country and golf meets were held in beautiful weather as well, especially considering it has snowed during both events during the past decade.

The winter was terrific in its own right. I remember only one big night of basketball and one big night of wrestling being canceled due to snow, sleet or cold throughout eastern Iowa this past year. And to top it all off, the two weeks of the state basketball tournaments bucked their traditional fare of ushering in an early spring snowstorm and went off without much of a whimper from the weather gods.
 
Now that the spring sport season is upon us the warm unseasonable weather continues. The indoor track portion of the season has ended, and just about all of the meets could have been held outdoors without any problems. All the spring teams have been practicing outside for the most part instead of their traditional days of running up and down the school hallways or trying to get things done for the upcoming season in the gyms.
 
There, I said it and wrote about it. So if all of this comes to an end soon and we watch snow come to the Drake Relays this year - it has happened before - and endless rain to the baseball and softball seasons you can blame me. But for right now, enjoy it and hope that the other shoe doesn't fall too soon ... or that the Mayans were right!