Snow Days

Shoveling snow of football pitches is a scene you may think of when playing against a Russian team in the height of one of their winters. Or something you would associate with apprentices and ground staff for some of the lower league teams in England.

America is seen as the leader in economy around the world and their sporting facilities are something to be rivaled. Most athletes growing up want to play at the highest level they can. In terms of playing during college there is nothing that beats an NCAA Division 1 program, the level of play, the athletic budget and the facilities.

On March 7^th there was a sight taking place at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee that you wouldn’t think of seeing when talking about the university’s soccer program. Players from both the men and women’s teams where out on the pitch shoveling 8 inches of snow in an attempt to get the men’s game under way that was scheduled for March 9^th against DePaul University. With all the money in the sport and a University at the high standards of Milwaukee, you would think that there would be a specialist snow team or student workers designated to clearing off the snow. Not in this case

After two months of training indoors in a dull and dreary gym the players could only take so much. The shovels came out with the odd snowplow and whatever else could be used to remove the snow from the pitch. The scene took me back to my days as a youth apprentice at Tranmere Rovers, when we would have to clear snow off of the training pitches for the first team. To me there is something nostalgic about seeing people shovel snow off of a football pitch. The dedication and love of the sport, just to get the game on. You see images in books and review shows on the television of people from the 70's and 80's up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday trying to get the snow off the pitch so they can see their team play. It is certainly a sight for the purist.

Three hours of shoveling was certainly a valiant effort by both sets of players, but with the weather and temperature as unpredictable as they are in Wisconsin and eight inches of snow lying on the pitch, the soccer players may have bitten off more than they can chew. In a day and age when athletes are considered spoilt rotten or only do things for money; it was good to see those pre-conceived conceptions of prima donnas blown out of the water.

Athletes at times get a bad reputation for being greedy or selfish and it seems like all the unselfish work goes unnoticed. This act by the men and women’s soccer team was good to see that athletes do care. Just this week it was made public knowledge that Bury Football Club’s players when on less than minimum wage, this all as an attempt to stop the club from going into administration. We need more and more examples of this unselfish kind act from athletes around the world. My thoughts on money in sports are that it is ruining the game. But with acts like this then there may just be a chance that not everyone is entirely corrupted. 

Photo courtesy of Swindon Town F.C