Staff photo by TOM KING Tennis anyone? Nashua High School South boys tennis players, like many in the area, have had no choice this week but to practice indoors as winter keeps its grip on the lcoal area.

There has been a crowd in the lobby of the Nashua High School South gym just about every day this week, around 4 p.m.

No, not fans waiting to get in for a game or students for an assembly. Nope, it’s student athletes waing for one sport to finsish

This is the time of year when the property value of a high school gym – heck, any indoor athletic facility – can skyrocket.

It’s all about supply and demand. High school athletic directors have so many spring sports teams to try to fit into one – or, if they are fortunate – two gym areas for daily practices while they wait for the snow to both stop and melt.

“Absolutely,” Alvirne High School athletic director Karen Bonney said. “It’s a challenge, but it’s a challenge we all face. If it was isolated just for us, I think we’d be losing our minds.”

Creativity is the key, and so are off-campus facilities. But this winter seems to be dragging a bit longer for high school spring teams, as a bit more snow was expected overnight Wednesday to add to what’s already on the fields, tennis courts, etc.

But with the March sun and hopefully warmer temperatures ahead, it should be gone soon. Tennis season is set to open on April 2 for some teams, and baseball, softball, lacrosse and track the week of April 9. The other spring sport, boys volleyball, is an indoor sport that also starts that week but doesn’t being practices until next week.

“It seems like every year we go through this, and we’re all in a panic,” Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras said, “and all of a sudden boom, boom boom, things happen and we’re outside playing softball, baseball and lacrosse and we’re running track.

“It just seems this year it’s lasting a little big longer.”

Nashua Park-Recreation Superintendent Nick Caggiano was scrambling early in the week trying to get assess what the status would be of fields, including facilities Holman Stadium (baseball) and Stellos Stadium (lacrosse).

“I don’t know how quickly Stellos will be ready for next week,” he said. “You can only bring (the snow level by plow) down to two inches. Usually the sun will melt the rest, but it’s been so cold. If they have to practice indoors, that’s what will happen if we have more issues. But we’re going to shoot for next week. … We’ll get through it.”

“We’re hoping to get out there on Monday,” Gingras said, while keeping her fingers crossed that the latest snow would not be as abad as the previous storms. “That’s going to be 100 percent dependent on what we get (with the latest storm).”

Meanwhile, Caggiano is hoping April 7 could be a realistic target date for Holman, but that remains to be seen.

At Alvirne, Bonney now has more sports to deal with than the Broncos had in the past, as in the last few years the school has added boys and girls lacrosse. But the gym time has been a bit alleviated as she has those teams practicing indoors at the Tyngsborough (Mass.) Sports Center while the boys and girls tennis teams are getting time at Nashua Swim and Tennis while snow is still on the courts at the school.

“It’s a tease right now,” Bonney said. “One of our courts, it’s half visible, but now more snow. But anything we get now shouldn’t stick. But it’s 40 degrees out.”

If that. The Bronco boosters bought a batting cage for the gym that can be used to help bolster the baseball team workouts (and softball, one might imagine). Hollis Brookline has one also that was installed a year ago. Other teams try to get time at local indoor cages which were used by prospective players all winter anyway. Meanwhile, high school track teams are using hallways, and less traveled neighborhood roads. “We live in a neighborhood where traffic is minimal,” Bonney said, “and our coaches are doing a good job of using areas where they can provide safety for the kids to run.”

Merrimack AD Mike Soucy has the boys and girls lacrosse teams practicing at some local indoor facilities (renting the time) and tennis is using the Merrimack YMCA. But the gym has worked too.

“Fortunately we have the gym space that keeps all our teams out of the parking lot,” he said.

Some schools don’t have to outsource for practice space, especially those in Nashua. North and South have smaller “medium gyms” to go with the larger gyms. Bishop Guertin has a field house connected to the main building to use along with its own gym.

“Yeah,” Gingras said. “But you know what? Next door, girls lacrosse, 50 girls. It’s crowded in there.”

Gingras estmated that if the snow melts on the tennis courts at both schools that sometime next week teams can head outside practicing. But normally the teams don’t shovel the snow off the courts themselves unless there’s very little left to clear.

“We let it melt because we don’t want to damage the surface,” she said. “But sometimes they’ll get out there and help it along a little bit.”

It’s too early to tell, athletic directors say, whether any regular season schedules would be disrupted. There’s an annual spring concert at Alvirne, Bonney said, that may limit gym time down the road.

“We make it work, because that’s what we do,” Bonney said. “It is what it is. My coaches are doing what they can, getting creative.”

Soucy says it’s the coaches that feel the frustration of being stuck indoors more than the administrators. Remember, he was the Hollis Brookline boys lacrosse coach the last few years.

“Honestly it’s probably more frustrating for coaches that have things to accomplish before their first game,” Soucy said, “and it’s just not the same practicing indoors.”

“Everyone in New England is in the same boat we are,” Nashua South softball coach Kevin Handy said. “A lot of situational things (are worked on) inside. I preach that. We just make the best we can. I think there’s some outfield drills you can do, I know there’s a ceiling (in the gym) but you can do some flexibility drills.

“We’re all in the same boat here. It’s not the most ideal situation, but something we adapt to.”

Often the first time a team sees the outdoors or a field is the season’s first game.

“We did it the last two years,” said Handy, who coached middle school softball in Raymond the last few years. “In Raymond we’d go out to the parking lot for 10 minutes and we had a game the next day. You can notice sloppy ball from both teams. But you can only go up from there.”

Just like the value of indoor facilities the next few weeks.

“If you can find an indoor facility, that’s golden,” said Handy, who may be looking for time at a facility in Bedford where he also coaches ASA softball. “It’s not like you’re in Florida and you can be outside.”

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One thing that Gingras had to immediately solve besides practice time is a sudden coaching vacancy. South boys tennis coach Thomas Steinfeld took over last year after Dave Santierre stepped away, and guided the Panthers to the tournament.

But just a couple of weeks ago he had to step down, as a teaching job in Dover made things too problematic.

His replacement? Welcome back, Coach Santierre.

“We picked up the phone and called Dave and said, ‘What are the chances?’,” Gingras said. “He was more than happy to come out of ‘retirement’. I tease him every day that he’s come out of retirement. So the boys are excited to have him back.”

Gingras said she and Steinfeld tried to figure out a way to make it work but couldn’t. “He did a very nice job,” Gingras said. “Unfortunately, the logistics of trying to get back to Nashua for practices, etc. We talked, ‘Do we have practices at night? Do we move your matches to 5 p.m.?’ But it wasn’t working.”

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Meanwhile, Gingras has to fill another coaching vacancy, but has time as this one is for next winter season. Panthers girls swim coach Jen Burnette stepped down to spend more time with her family, but this spring is working as the JV softball coach.

“Being a parent, and I have a new baby at home, it was too hard,” Burnette, a Guertin alum, said. “I’m switching over to softball. I was a four sport athlete growing up and it’s nice to get on the softball field and hopefully help this team pick up there.”

Still, she said she’ll miss swimming. The Panther girls had eight qualify for the state meet, and finished fourth.

“It was a great sport, the teams supported each other, working hard,” she said. “They cheer each other on. … Last year we finished eighth, this year fourth, and next year I think they can take it all.”

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The annual Joe Yukica/New Hampshire Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame has announced this year’s Scholar/Athletes who will be honored at the Chapter’s annual banquet on May 1 at the Executive Court Banquet Facility in Manchester.

Locals who will be honored include Nashua South’s Derek Chiavelli, Kyle Reeder and Sean Holland; Milford’s Michael Boucher and Merrimack’s Joe Eichman.

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