During fall ball with my club softball team, we couldn’t participate in some tournaments because we didn’t have enough players. Trying to rely on substitute players is difficult when so many other teams need them too, and it’s especially difficult trying to get pitchers and catchers. To solve this, Kansas and Missouri high school teams should have their season during the fall.

Missouri high school softball is played during the fall, while the Kansas season is played during the spring. Because of this, Missouri high school teams start tryouts before the start of their school year and aren’t able to join their club teams until the end of October when they are playing their last tournaments in the fall.

The gap is conflicting because club teams in the metro area consist of girls from both Kansas and Missouri. Club teams are able to practice together again for most of the winter, but the last week of February is when high school tryouts for Kansas start. The Missouri girls will continue to practice until it is time for spring tournaments, but a lot of teams will have to combine within their organizations to complete a team because of the loss of the Kansas players. Additionally, Kansas high school players won’t rejoin their team until the last weekend in May, if they make it to state.

This creates a loss of playing and practicing time club teams have together. Club teams will have played many tournaments and bonded without the girls from Kansas.

However, making sure there’s only one season would keep girls more interested in the game and create better cohesiveness within the team because players would be together all the time. Teammates can become good friends and form a bond that you can’t have with anyone else. The difference between the two seasons causes a barrier.

The weather is also a major factor for Kansas high school teams playing in the spring season. In the fall season, the end of August might be pretty hot, but it usually cools nicely to a mild temperature. This makes for very good weather when practicing outside every day during the week. It doesn’t get too cold at the end of October in Missouri and Kansas.

In Kansas, tryouts happen in the last week of February. This is almost a month before spring actually begins. This year, the high school softball team experienced very bad conditions and wasn’t able to practice outside until weeks into the season. It was rainy, snowy and just outright cold.

As we get later into the season, the saying “April showers bring May flowers,” isn’t a joke. The rain is unpredictable and games get rescheduled all the time. This can cause games to pile up in the following weeks because each game is usually a double header. Playing three double headers in a week can be hard on the players. This makes it difficult to keep up with school work at a time when we should be focusing on upcoming finals. The easiest way to alleviate this is to have Kansas and Missouri high schools play softball during the fall.