The postponement of the boys basketball regional games Saturday brings back memories of the 1978 season.
A blizzard hit the Midwest, including Indiana, in March that year, forcing the postponement of the sectional games for three weeks.
The regular season was over and teams were preparing for the sectional when the snow came down. Because of the three-week delay, the IHSAA allowed teams to play an extra game before entering the sectional.
Scottsburg won the local sectional in Seymour High School’s Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium in 1978.
On Friday, the Brownstown Central and Crothersville boys basketball teams were preparing to leave for practices in Danville and Loogootee, respectively, when the IHSAA announced the state tournament had been postponed indefinitely because of concerns with the coronavirus and COVID-19.
Brownstown originally was scheduled to play its regional game in Greencastle, but the host site backed out, and it was moved to Danville.
The IHSAA had initially announced regionals would be played in front of a limited number of fans with each school being issued only 75 tickets. Only parents, siblings and grandparents of the players were going to be allowed.
With the Seymour Regional being postponed, local restaurants, motels and other businesses took a big financial hit when the fans from Floyd Central, Evansville, Greenwood and Bloomington stayed away.
Seymour and Trinity Lutheran high schools were going to be closed for spring break this week, and Brownstown, Crothersville and Medora are scheduled to be closed next week for spring break.
All public and private schools in Jackson County are closed through at least April 6.
Spring sports teams will not be allowed to have organized practices during this time, which forces the start of the season to be postponed indefinitely. Some school officials doubt baseball, softball, track and field, golf and tennis will be held this spring.
Originally, Seymour’s softball team was scheduled to open at Columbus North on March 24, Brownstown was scheduled to open against Seymour on March 30 and the Trinity and Seymour baseball teams and Trinity and Crothersville softball teams were scheduled to play March 31.
The other teams were scheduled to open in early April.
Girls track sectionals are scheduled for May 19, boys track sectionals for May 21, golf sectionals are scheduled for May 20, softball sectionals are scheduled to begin May 25, baseball sectionals are scheduled to begin May 27 and golf sectionals are scheduled to be held June 5.
A lot of the spring sports coaches had their athletes working on conditioning and did other drills in late February and early March before those activities came to a halt during the weekend.
With the IHSAA likely not allowing spring teams to hold practices until April 6 or after and requiring at least one week of practice, those teams will have shortened seasons — if they have a season at all.