Bad winter causing local sports problems

It's been a rough 10 days for local Hi-Line sports scene. It's also unfortunate because it's one of the most important times of the season.

Two winter storms less than a full week apart have played havoc with high school basketball, wrestling and swimming, and the worse of the two storms, Thursday's blast of snow and wind, couldn't have come at a worse time.

First, it's state wrestling and swimming week, and that means not only are teams, but tons of fans out on the road. State wrestling in Billings typically draws about 15,000 extra people to Billings each year, and Thursday's storm will likely cause a lot of travel issues.

The Havre Blue Ponies got out ahead of the storm, leaving after a quick Pep Assembly Wednesday afternoon. Many other wrestling teams did the same, arriving in Billings Wednesday night, according to 406mtsports.com.

Unfortunately, the Havre High swim team,, and many other swim teams around Montana didn't get their travel day in before the start of Friday's Montana State Swimming Championships. The Blue Pony swim teams were set to leave Thursday for Great Falls, but travel unsafe conditions didn't allow Havre to get out of town, so Havre left for the state this morning instead.

And while Thursday's storm packed quite a punch, and has left severe driving conditions across much of Montana, state wrestling and state swimming will go on.

However, the end to the high school basketball season is much more uncertain right now.

Last week's blizzard caused numerous cancellations, especially on the Hi-Line. Havre didn't make its scheduled trip to Lewistown last Saturday, and four games within the District 9C were also postponed, as was Rocky Boy's games with Choteau last Saturday.

Some of those games were made up earlier in the week, but local basketball teams are now in the same boat again, with the arrival of Thursday's huge storm that dumped more than a foot of snow on Havre and surrounding areas.

Thursday night saw a few more cancellations, and there could be more today, if travel conditions haven't improved. For District 9C teams and Class B Rocky Boy and Harlem, that puts things in a precarious position because this weekend is the final weekend of the regular season, with district tournaments starting next Wednesday.

North Star athletic director Brian Campbell sent out an email earlier in the week detailing possible scenarios for seeding the 9C tournament, should the regular season not be finished. Included was the possiblity of games that have an effect on the seeding being made up Monday night, just two days ahead of the start of the tournament.

Havre High also has Central A makeup games to play Monday night at Lewistown.