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Athletes vs. Snow: How locals dealt with Jonas


Winter Storm Jonas hit Franklin and Fulton counties, and it hit hard.

With only eight days left before the cutoff date for basketball games to count toward District 3 power rankings, Winter Storm Jonas hit at a veryinopportune time. Scheduling and postponing games has become a chess match, and at least three Franklin County schools didn't even reopen their doors until Thursday.

Not only were games and school days missed, but the sheer practice time that was taken away is immeasurable.

The first time James Buchanan's boys team stepped on the court since last Thursday was Wednesday night for a game at Shippensburg.

"Seven seniors actually got together (on Tuesday) to have a team dinner, so that was nice," JB's Gage Piper said. "But we didn't have a chance to practice at all."

Other teams were a bit luckier. The Greyhounds had a practice on Tuesday, and it definitely worked to their advantage.

"We were fortunate enough to come in and have a practice," Ship's Wade Mills said. "It wasn't a very good practice, but we got the sloppiness out of the way. ... We didn't practice for three days, so we were really rusty."

Mills didn't spend much time on the court at all during the storm. His father owns an excavating company, so when it snows, Mills joins his father on the plows.

Some players, such as Greencastle-Antrim's Casey Hoover, got in the gym a few times during the break. Blue Devil coach Gary Martin also held a voluntary practice on Tuesday to combat missing the first three days of school this week.

"We know people that can get us in the gym, so some of us have been playing throughout the snowstorm, but some haven't," Hoover said. "I'm sure (Coach) isn't happy with the storm, and he probably wants us in the gym more than we were. The voluntary practice at least got most of us back in the gym, playing together, and he wanted to get us in at least once before we play Waynesboro (on Thursday)."

But now after a lengthy, unexpected midseason vacation, it's back to work. G-A faces five games in the next six days, and many other teams are in similar boats. But it'll certainly be an interesting home stretch.