Jared Hensley took one look at the seven inches of snow covering his baseball field and went back home to play in the stuff with his two sons.
"I've surrendered," Soddy-Daisy High School's coach said Thursday morning.
While baseball coaches were holding out hopes for getting in at least a couple of weekend scrimmages, softball coaches have no chance.
The Saturday playday scheduled for Camp Jordan Park has been canceled.
"Unless the temperature gets up to 88 degrees and the wind is blowing 20 miles per hour, I doubt we'll be able to play," said Stump Martin, whose East Ridge recreation crew oversees Camp Jordan. "The ground was already saturated, but we felt good before the snow came -- felt things could dry out Thursday and Friday and play on Saturday."
Henlsey was one of a handful of baseball coaches to cover his infield with hopes of getting in scrimmage games beginning Thursday evening, joining Ooltewah's Brian Hitchcox, Red Bank's Trey Hicks and Lookout Valley's Lance Rorex.
With Tennessee season openers scheduled for March 9 and rain in the forecast beginning late Sunday, area coaches are looking at going into the season with few, if any, scrimmages.
"We may wind up scrimmaging Red Bank in that indoor soccer facility," Hensley said with a laugh.
Today's scrimmage schedule hadn't been called off, but coaches were more hopeful of getting tarps off today with hopes of playing Saturday and Sunday.
"It's brutal," Hensley said. "We haven't officially canceled anything, but I think Saturday's going to be difficult. The fields were wet and soggy already. Maybe we can get in a couple of games on Sunday."
Former Lookout Valley coach Wes Caldwell, now an assistant at Ooltewah and the tournament director, already has revised the original schedule more than a half-dozen times. He wasn't so willing to wipe out Saturday plans.
"We can't yet pull the tarps. They're too heavy because of all the snow," Caldwell said Thursday afternoon. "But I'm going to be disappointed if we don't get to play Saturday. If we get a good day of melting today and tomorrow, then we ought to be able to heat it up on Saturday.
"It's hard to believe that we're going to open the season and nobody has played a scrimmage game."
Coaches are looking at the possibility of playing three Sunday games, at 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 4.
"We've got plans for Sunday, which I know can be a little bit of a touchy subject, but Sunday may wind up being the only day we can play," Hensley said.
Temperatures are predicted to be in the 60s next week, but there are chances for rain every day through Wednesday.
"I don't see anybody playing Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of next week because of the rain," Caldwell added.
Calhoun girls try again
The Calhoun girls' basketball state quarterfinal game against East Hall was delayed for the third time and will, barring further issues, tip off today at 4 at Calhoun.
The Lady Yellow Jackets (25-4) have not played since Monday's overtime win over Washington County, and today's game is the only Georgia girls' quarterfinal yet to be completed. The winner today will have to play again Saturday in the semifinals against Beach County in Columbus.
"As far as I know we'll have to play back-to-back if we win," Calhoun coach Jerry Pruett said. "It may be better that way. You never know how teams will respond, and as a coach now you just realize you have to do what you have to do. The only thing that could hurt us is fatigue, but we could be more relaxed because we haven't had to sit around for two days. I just want the opportunity to play Saturday."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.