After having two games delayed due to snow, past the start of the spring season, senior girls’ ultimate captain Esther Gendler said winter weather has prevented playing in outdoor conditions.

“We’re getting a later start to our season because we had to postpone two of our games already,” Gendler said. “A lot of the people haven’t experienced playing in the wind which is a huge factor in ultimate so we just have to kind of see how that goes when we play outside.”

Gendler said the girls’ ultimate team usually begins outdoor practices at the beginning of March.

According to girls’ ultimate assistant coach Callyssa Ozzello, snow has caused difficulties for the coaching staff, who are unable to teach ultimate in usual playing conditions.

“It’s really hard to teach a sport that’s supposed to be played outside, but we have to teach it inside,” Ozzello said. “It has definitely changed the mindset we have to take as coaches, and then as the team too — of how we’re entering our season.”

Ozzello said because the snow has affected all ultimate teams, not just Park, it will likely not change the team’s overall performance during the season.

“One nice thing, I guess you could say, is it’s not just impacting us, it’s impacting everyone, so we’re kind of all in this together to find indoor space we can share with other teams in our area,” Ozzello said.

According to Gendler, limited gym availability prevents the team from following a regular practice schedule.

“We haven’t been able to practice outside at all yet, so practices have been very spread out because we can only practice when gym space is available. We haven’t been able to practice regularly which means attendance is kind of difficult because a lot of people can’t come to practices,” Gendler said.

Gendler said indoor practices prevent the team from playing full scrimmages.

“The gym space is so small that we can’t play a full game because there’s just not enough space in there,” Gendler said.

Ozzello said the team’s flexibility in the face of last minute schedule changes has been helpful for the coaches in finding times to practice and play games.

“We just kind of take it a day at a time,” Ozzello said. “Our girls have been super awesome at being flexible to our schedule.”