Weather cooperative as all sports begin first week of fall practices

After a pandemic in 2020 wiped out fall sports altogether, 2021 brought tornadic weather to DeKalb County that interfered with the first day of fall practices.

Thunderstorms messed with early morning practices on Day 1 in 2022. But that all seems to be in the past after a second straight year of 80-degree weather to start practices for all fall sports.

[  Photos: Indian Creek volleyball prepares for season ]

In fact, even the indoor teams are taking advantage of the expected seasonally cool temperatures, with the Indian Creek freshman and sophomore teams heading to Lake Shabbona on Friday for their annual tradition.

“It’s a good change of scenery,” IC girls volleyball coach Matt Orstead said after practice Monday night, adding the varsity team does a sand practice later in the season. “And it’s great this year because it’s been beautiful. Even [athletic director Ehren] Mertz talked about it at our athletics meeting for parents. ... He was talking about how this was the nicest full day for a fall sport in years.”

Third-year Genoa-Kingston cross-country coach Grace Nelson said the weather has been cooperative throughout summer workouts as well. With just one senior on the roster, the team is focusing on building a culture.

Jones said that the quest is much easier without the curveballs that have been thrown weather-wise the past couple years, pointing to the Canadian wildfire smoke that was prevalent throughout last summer.

“We commented on that toward the end of the summer,” Nelson said. “We got lucky with some nice, nice weather. No wildfire smoke or anything. It’ll have to be hot, but we hope it doesn’t get too hot.”

On the football field, players are only in helmets and not full pads for the first few days, but the temperate weather makes a difference.

“That certainly helps,” DeKalb football coach Derek Schneeman said. “I think everybody is in a little better mood when the real feel isn’t 110. That helps for sure.”

The Barbs have a lot of experience back from last year, with 19 starters returning on both sides of the ball.

“We’ll continue to watch as guys hold each other accountable,” Schneeman said. “Coaches can do our job by staying on guys and making sure they’re doing the right things, but it means more when they take ownership. We’re seeing more of that this year.”

Sycamore also brings back a lot of returners on both sides of the ball, and that makes a notable difference in Day 1 practices in the fall, coach Joe Ryan said.

“We’ve got a good group out here, they’re working hard,” Ryan said. “They have retained a lot of stuff we did this summer, and they’re moving faster. When you have an experienced group, it’s about being as fast as you can, because we don’t have to teach a lot of things.

“We have to correct, but we don’t have to teach a lot of things.”

Numbers also are a good thing in Indian Creek. The school as a whole has struggled with girls sports in particular – there was no varsity basketball team last year and no soccer program in the spring.

But Orstead said numbers have been great this week, a carryover from the summer. He said that for a freshman and sophomore summer league in Sycamore, they’d get as many as 22 players at the event.

“Our numbers have thankfully always been strong,” Orstead said. “Even last year, seeing the girls not having a varsity basketball team or soccer team, it was kind of crazy. But we’re still pulling. I had 16 girls just today for varsity. Both freshman and sophomore levels are in double digits as well for each level.”