Spring sports in the air

ESSEX – The standard length of a high school basketball court is only 84 feet, or roughly 26 meters.

That makes it tricky for the Essex Trojanette hurdlers to get a full practice run in their 100-meter hurdle dash, but they are not letting that get the best of them as the track season begins in less than a week.

“We’re still waiting for the track to dry out from all of the rain and snow before we get to go outdoors,” Essex Girls’ Track Head Coach Allen Stuart said. “Until then, we’ve been doing a lot indoors to get ourselves as ready as possible.”

The warmer weather has also affected golf teams from Red Oak, Villisca, and East Mills, who won’t be able to start practicing until this week.

Red Oak’s tennis teams will also start practice this week, as scheduled, but will be taking advantage of the warmer weather, rather than the three inches of snow that fell Friday.

The track season officially gets underway Saturday as the East Mills girls’ and boys’ teams travel to Lamoni.

Essex will not be competing until Tuesday, Apr. 6 as the Trojanettes will travel to Clarinda to compete with Stanton,Villisca, and Griswold.

The Red Oak Tigers start their season as the girls travel to Shenandoah and the boys host the Hawkeye 10 South Meet, Mar. 30.