While snowball fights took the place of athletic events during “Blizzard 2016″, athletic departments and school officials were forced to put their thinking caps on. Tons of games across the DMV were put on hold as any chance of commuting was blurred by heavy snowfall.
Montgomery County athletics specialist Jeff Sullivan had a big hand in coordinating the hundreds of athletes and long list of events for which there was no option but to move play to different days. Sullivan said the process was helped through responding to weather reports before the harsh elements arrived.
“This started last week once we got the idea that we were gonna get slammed. We always try to work in advance…be proactive. So, we moved up the weekend’s contests and we moved Friday’s basketball to Thursday,” Sullivan explained.
For Montgomery County schools, those shots were, for the most part, out of the hands of on-campus administration. Rather, the county’s central office made the final say about game rescheduling after discussing the severity of impending storms. Throughout the decision-making process, communication was kept constant with school athletic directors and officials. This method of decision-making is unique though to winter sports, as facility constraints for winter events make “wholesale moves” easier.