Three days after the official start of spring practice, Manchester Valley boys lacrosse coach John Piper hadn't even walked his practice field because the snow was still up to his knees in spots.

Snow also covered Fallston's softball field and the baseball practice field through the first week of practice.

At McDonogh's sprawling Owings Mills campus, where athletic director Mickey Deegan oversees about 500 acres of natural grass fields, she said the melting snow left mushy fields, making this the worst start to the spring season she can remember.

That's saying something, because the weather often wreaks havoc with high school sports in the spring. It can snow. It can rain. It can be the worst of winter or the worst of spring.

This season, which began March 1 for the public schools and earlier for some private schools, snow was the big story at first - what was left of more than 40 inches that fell three weeks before. Once that melted, more than 3 inches of rain fell over the weekend and skies did not clear until Tuesday.

Grass fields are saturated. One practice would tear them up for the season, so play days have been canceled and scrimmages postponed. Athletic directors, coaches and athletes are hoping for a warm, sunny, breezy stretch to dry things out in time for the public schools' opening day Monday.

"We've all met with the grounds shop and facilities people, not just Baltimore City but Baltimore County and the other surrounding counties, and we've all been told the same thing. They can't put those heavy machines on the fields until they dry out, and that's going to be a while," said Bob Wade, coordinator of athletics for the Baltimore City public schools, last week.

Howard County coodinator Mike Williams had to stop some of his coaches from shoveling grass fields, tennis courts and tracks.

"With risk management and safety factors, when coaches and kids are shoveling snow, that's not part of the job description. We have ball diamonds that if you go on those fields with shovels and tractors, you're going to cause more trouble," Williams said, adding that tennis courts and track surfaces could also be damaged by shoveling.

Only one athletic director reported business as usual for all his teams since practice began: Lou Eckerl at Calvert Hall, where the lacrosse and baseball fields have artificial turf.

"Things look wonderful for us right now," said Eckerl, who is also the Cardinals' baseball coach. "We're been practicing outside. Besides Navy, I don't know any other [baseball] team that can say that."

While some school officials were able to clear their artificial turf fields, others, such as in Anne Arundel County, were not, fearing that shovels would rip the turf. Once the snow melted, county teams with turf shared their fields with teams from schools that don't have artificial turf.

In other counties, some teams rented time on artificial turf, but most had to practice indoors or in the parking lot.

While bad weather is more common in the spring than any other season and coaches are prepared for it, this March has been particularly bad with all the melting snow.

"This is probably the worst setback challenge we've ever had in 22 years. We've had rainy days, but there's nothing you can do about 30 inches of snow except pray that it melts," said Deegan, who has to juggle indoor space for more than 30 teams from middle school through the varsity level.

"It's just a total nightmare," said Towson athletic director Joslyn Travis, whose fields are low-lying and poor-draining.

Travis and her fellow ADs compensate by juggling practice time in gyms, activity rooms and parking lots. She runs two-hour rotations in the gym and activity room from 2:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and asked the recreation council to adjust its schedule so the Generals could practice Saturdays.

At Kenwood, the girls lacrosse team practices at 5:30 a.m., and AD Derek Maki has practice going in the gym until 8:30 at night.

"It's frustrating," Piper said.

But it's not the first time he has had to adjust. Piper remembered an athlete's father with a front-end loader clearing a spot for lacrosse practice after snow in March 2003 when he was coaching at North Carroll. That snow didn't last long, though.

"I was thinking back to the last time it was like this, which was maybe 1997," Piper said. "It wasn't so much snow as we had rain after rain after rain and we were constantly in the gym. We couldn't get out. The beginning of the season got pushed back. I think we were practicing almost six weeks before we even got a game in. My kids were like: 'We're done with the gym, Coach. We want to play somebody.' "

It's not easy for coaches either. Trying to evaluate talent and make final cuts in the gym or the parking lot without ever seeing players in game situations is tricky.

"We're in the parking lot, so all we're doing is stick skills," said Dave Gehres, Annapolis AD and girls lacrosse coach. "It's pretty easy with kids who may not make [the team], but it's those bubble kids who may be varsity, may be JV. That's where it can be a little bit tougher in this kind of weather."

For the athletes, it can be a challenge. Even for the veterans.

"Inside, it's a lot harder to see the ball in the cage," said Fallston's Shane Hollman, a senior on the baseball team. "There's a little more standing around and not being able to throw and do as much. There's just not enough space."

Space is a problem for lacrosse practice in the gym, too, Fallston senior Leah Perrotta said.

"A lot of it is not being able to spread out," Perrotta said. "Usually when we're outside, we do seven-on-seven, which is more game-like. But inside, we can only do four-on-four or five-on-five, which limits the chemistry, too, developing that chemistry by working with the other players."

River Hill baseball coach Wes McCoy, who had 5 inches of snow on his field 10 days ago, said being inside isn't all bad because players can work on little things such as stealing bases, taking a lead or defending against the bunt.

"Sometimes in this situation, it's easier than you might think to make decisions about players," McCoy said, "because the best players separate themselves no matter where they are playing - even if they're stuck inside for two or three weeks."

Williams agreed that despite the weather delays, it is not as bad as it might seem.

"People have short memories. We had a similar situation in 2003. I was coaching lacrosse at Glenelg, and we spent three weeks on blacktop and lost five dozen balls. In 1993, we didn't play a baseball game until April," Williams said.

"Young coaches haven't been through this, but the bottom line is we'll get the season in. More experienced coaches know that a week or two inside a gym or on blacktop is not going to determine a state championship."

Baltimore Sun reporter Sandra McKee contributed to this article.