Flooding causing havoc with athletics
Harmar Cemetery at Wood Street on the west side of the Muskingum River has become a temporary resting place for some of the shells from the Marietta High School Boathouse on Gilman Avenue.
“Because of the flooding and the mud, you do what you gotta do,” said MHS girls’ crew coach Joe Tewkesbury. “We’ve got boats there (at Harmar Cemetery) and at other places.”
At the boathouse itself on Monday, Tewkesbury said that “if people aren’t doing anything, to come on over and help — and bring a snow shovel.”
“The mud is about two inches deep in the parking lot,” Tewkesbury said. “It’s like Jell-O, and it’s an all-uniform brown.”
Normally, Tewkesbury got to the boathouse by crossing the Putnam Bridge, and turning right on to Gilman.
“I had to take the backway this time,” he said. “I went down to Washington Street bridge, parked at Plumbers and Pipefitters (on Front Street in Marietta), and walked to the boathouse.”
While all the boats and trailer have been moved, the docks were also gone.
“About 180 feet of them,” Tewkesbury said. “The floats for the new ones just arrived last Thursday. Until Gilman Avenue is cleaned up, it looks like it could be awhile before we start building the docks.”
With the Tiger Navy crew season set to begin in earnest in mid-March, all the flooding has affected adversely the practice time of the boys’ and girls’ teams.
“How are we going to be competitive?” Tewkesbury said. “We’ll have a lot of first-year rowers, who will need to be on the water — but not under these conditions.”
Meanwhile, up the Ohio River, at Frontier High, the Washington County Middle School Basketball Tournament was scheduled to tip off this past Saturday.
“We had to reschedule that for Monday due to all of the flooding,” said MHS Athletic Director Rick Guimond.
“Now, the Marietta Tiger boys’ basketball sectional tournament game on Tuesday at Logan High is still on.”
No. 9-seeded MHS is slated to pay eighth-seeded Circleville High in a D2 opening-round game at 6:15 p.m.
Back in Marietta at Marietta College, the Pioneers are slated to host an Ohio Athletic Conference hoops doubleheader Tuesday night with the women tipping off at 6 p.m. and the men at 8 p.m. (approximately).
Parking for these games could be an issue, though. If parking is not available on campus, fans are being asked to park at Marietta Middle School on 7th Street, where a shuttle bus will transport people to Ban Johnson Arena.
As of this writing, “the Don Drumm Stadium artificial surface still had water on it,” according to Darrell Prim, the MHS Director of Facilities, Transportation, and Safety.
Both the Tigers and Pioneers play their home football games in the fall at Don Drumm. And, in the spring, the two schools host track and field meets there.
“There’s a 4-foot fence at Don Drumm, and it’s my understanding that the water went over it,” Prim said. “What the college will have to do to clean it up is wash the mud out of the artificial turf.
“I think all we can do now is hold our breath and hope for the best.”