Weather affects all sports in some shape or form. In some sports it just makes mental changes, in others it physically changes the entire sport or even cancels games. All of these changes affect athletes in the high school, college , and professional level. Weather affects sports like football, cross country, tennis, soccer, and track. 

Weather affects many sports, one of these being soccer. According to Senior left back Kyoshi Hall,  the ideal conditions have little to no wind on a cloudy day. “I like competing in these conditions because the heat doesn’t get to me because obviously it’s not hot. The wind feels good, whenever I’m a little wet, heat affects me, pretty badly so whenever it’s cold. I performed better,”said Hall. On the other hand, weather also has negative effects for soccer players, according to Hall the worst of this weather being heavy rain and wind,  “ when it’s raining, the ball moves faster but that’s why I like when it’s just Cloudy and not raining. Because the ball works how you think it would work instead of sliding across the ground.” said Hall.

Cross Country also is affected by weather in many ways.  Sophia Cushman is a senior on the girls cross country team. She believes that cooler weather is ideal,“ I like cooler weather, I think I have my best races when it’s not super hot.” said Cushman. On the other hand, weather can have a negative effect on races. According to Cushman, super hot and muggy weather is the worst to run in “I just like it zaps my energy and I just feel gross and tired before the start of the race”, said Cushman. 

Other sports like tennis are affected much more by the weather.  Ty Rusco is a Junior on the AHS tennis team, his favorite weather to play in is a calm overcast. On the other hand, ”My least favorite weather to play in is super windy and beading hot because the heat drains energy and the wind affects where the ball goes.” said Rusco. But along with this Tennis is also canceled very easily due to the rain. The Rain can cause cancelations with tennis events both because the wet ground makes the ball go out of control, and because the court becomes extremely slick making it very easy to fall. 

Another sport that is heavily affected by the weather is football. Like all sports football is affected from the high school to professional level. When players play in wet weather like rain the ball becomes very slick this can lead to fumbles and dropped passes, on top of this the wet ground causes players to easily slip. In addition to this the wind can also make big differences in the game, sending field goal attempts wide left or right. 

Baseball is also heavily affected by the weather. Rain can have a huge effect on the sport, rain  makes catching fly balls much harder due to the high chance of  water drops landing in players’ eyes. In addition to this rain ruins the infield, turning the dirt to mud. As a result much could get on the ball making it harder to see, posing as a potential safety hazard. Rain can also cause pitches and other throws to become very out of control if not slow down, giving the batting team an advantage.

Track and field is also affected in many different ways by weather. Rain can have a large impact on throwing events such as, discus and shot put. Rain can cause the throwing equipment to become slick. In addition to this throwing events are held on concrete surfaces with not great drainage,  this makes slipping another challenge to deal with. On the other hand most of the running events in track mostly have a mental effect on athletes, due to the fact athletes are wearing spikes. But with that in mind the sudden drop of temperature from rain can cause athletes problems in the rain.

All of these outdoor sports are affected by the weather in some way shape or form although some are worse than others. But with this in mind there are ways to overcome these unideal conditions.These weather conditions are common from high school all the way to professional athletes for each of these sports.“You have to just be able to push through it and know what the conditions are,” said hall.