Winter weather often leads to many event cancellations

Nothing has more control over daily events, quite like Mother Nature.

Due to the recent inclement weather conditions, many scheduled sporting events have resulted in cancellations or postponements. Though the snowfall has passed for the most part, the cold temperatures have no intention of slowing down.

According to the National Weather Service in St. Louis, after the warm-up Wednesday, another round of bitterly cold temperatures. Dangerously cold wind chills and periods of light snow is expected behind another Arctic front later this week, which can lead to more game cancellations.

Doniphan, Twin Rivers, Neelyville, Dexter, Poplar Bluff and other high schools in the area have postponed most of their games scheduled for the week.

Poplar Bluff High School athletic director Kent Keith said before the school considers playing or traveling, their first priority will always be the safety of the students.

“The reality of scheduling sports for the Winter is that the weather always wins,” Keith said. “You can have the perfect schedules planned for all your teams, but if you get ice or snow, you aren’t playing. The safety of our student-athletes will always be our main focus.”

Keith said the next step when dealing with game postponement is finding a mutual agreement to reschedule with their opponent. If a date can’t be found, then they will cancel. He said they don’t like to cancel games because it doesn’t allow the student-athletes the opportunity to compete, but he wants everyone to understand that they will always lean towards the side of safety.