Poor conditions can impact the way a game is played. After receiving submissions from varsity head coaches about their teams’ craziest weather-related experiences, the sports editors voted on the final list of Glenbrook North’s top five crazy weather moments, conveyed by coaches and players who were at the events.

“Toward the second half of the game it just was raining the whole time,” said senior Kyle Mitter. “The field just started getting muddy, and all the balls started getting more dirt on them. And we’re only allowed to play with a certain amount of balls, so it was tough because all the balls were just dirty and the ground was wet. It was just a sloppy game in the second half. We started walking a lot of guys … but you could say it was fair for both teams. We still had a chance to win but it was definitely harder to play with those balls.”

“We pulled into Buffalo Grove, … and it was like 38 degrees, so we were thinking that we would just show up and they would cancel,” said Jeff Jordan, boys tennis head coach. “There was a nice, light snow going down but it was cold enough that when it got on the court it wouldn’t melt. It would just kind of blow around. So if the court gets wet you can’t play, but the court was dry, so the coaches that were there were like, ‘Well, we are going to play.’  … You would try to hit the ball and you would have snow hitting you in the face. … You can get frostbite, but we played.”

“As we are getting to the line to get checked in and finish our warm-ups, [a] massive downpour [starts],” said Bob LeBlanc, girls cross country head coach. “And the course was already soaked from the night before, so you could see it starting to pile everywhere, getting all muddy. The closer it got to the race time … the harder it came down and the windier it got. I had a hat, and it was still impossible to see. Cross country runners [were] in shorts and tank tops just getting pounded on.”

“While we were playing it started pouring rain, but we had to play because golfers can’t [stop] play unless there’s lightning,” said senior Amy Hong. “We went [inside] and I was actually tied for first [place] so I had to go in a playoff. I had to go back out and play in the freezing cold. And then we played three holes, and it was done. I won the third hole. … I couldn’t bend my fingers, and [Coach] Schroeder had socks on his hands. He gave away his gloves to the players.”

“We were outside on the main field practicing, and about halfway through practice the Thor Guard went off,” said Football Head Coach Bob Pieper. “We [went] in the field house, and we were practicing for maybe 20, 25 minutes and all of a sudden the fire alarm went off. So, we open the door to the field house and looked out and the Thor Guard was still going off, which means we can’t go outside, and we’re not supposed to be inside. So we kind of looked at each other and said, ‘What do we do?’ So we said, ‘Well, I guess if the fire is close we could go toward the pool, we could jump in the pool, we could do something I guess.’ So we kind of just stayed in the field house until the ‘all clear’ was given. … I think the storm caused the fire alarm to go off.”

Graphics by Hailey Koretz.