In the South, weddings are planned around football season with the summer months serving as a good option for “wedding season.”
In Iowa, however, that isn’t the case.
With Iowa high schools playing baseball and softball during the summer, families are forced to adjust their schedules.
“You honestly plan your wedding around softball season. My daughter is getting married in November because of that reason — softball,” Fort Dodge High School softball coach Andi Adams told USA TODAY Sports.
Adams’ daughter — Jalen Adams — of course, understands the lifestyle. She played softball at Fort Dodge and was the 2022 Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year before pitching at the collegiate level for Iowa and Arizona.
“Honestly, I think this is all we know,” Adams said. “I played here. I have been coaching for 27 years. My daughter played softball in the summer.”
The IHSAA baseball state championships are scheduled for July 20-24 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (4A and 3A) and Carroll, Iowa (2A and 1A), while softball is scheduled for the same dates in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
When is the Iowa baseball, softball high school season?
With the exception of in three states, high school baseball is played in the spring all throughout the United States. Two of those exceptions — in South Dakota and Wyoming — baseball is not a sanctioned sport.
Meanwhile, the outlier for the country is Iowa, which plays its baseball season in the middle of the summer — from the end of May through the end of July.
While softball varies between the spring and fall, depending on your state, it also uniquely falls under the summer sports category in Iowa.
“Part of the uniqueness of it is that, in Iowa being a lot of rural communities, we really value our multi-sport participation,” Executive Director of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Erin Gerlich told USA TODAY Sports.
“So, having summer softball, baseball allows a lot of other participation during the year for some other sports. I think right now everybody thinks that the model really fits pretty well. They vacation around some of those things.”
Gerlich added that there is a dead week at the end of July and the beginning of August that allows for a buffer before fall sports activities begin and the summer high school season ends. That’s the time families use for vacationing and to re-load for the brand-new school year.
“You aren’t oblivious, even if you don’t participate in sports,” Brooklyn-Guernsey-Malcom (BGM) High School softball coach Jill Husling told USA TODAY Sports. “I think primarily, if your child is going to participate in baseball or softball, they plan things around (the season).”
Summer baseball, like Friday night high school football games, brings a sense of community even when school is out.
“The unspoken question is, ‘What are we supposed to do on our nights during the summer?,'” IHSAA executive director Tom Keating told USA TODAY Sports. “We go watch baseball, softball in our town, and that’s how we spend our days. So it’s just become a combination of a schedule thing, a cultural thing and a community thing.
“I’m marveled. I’m A Philly guy. I grew up there. I came here and, you know, this was one of those things that made me say, ‘Really? What?’ And, you know, I’ve grown to understand why it’s why it’s so popular.”
While most states begin their high school spring seasons in late February or early March, Iowa must consider the potential of still having snow on the ground, which plays a role in when it can hold its baseball and softball seasons..
Starting the season in the summer makes more sense for that reason, even if some of the games get hotter in the dog days of the summer.
Western Dubuque High School baseball coach Casey Bryant believes Iowa gets in more games than other Midwestern states due to the summer season.
“In Iowa, spring baseball is cold,” Bryant told USA TODAY Sports. “I had to pitch a game when there were snow flurries. Midwestern states are crazy not to play summer baseball. They should be looking at us, trying to copy us.”
Five-for-five eligibility; four-sport athletes
While the NCAA just recently passed the five-for-five eligibility, giving collegiate athletes five years to play five seasons in college, a similar rule has been in place in Iowa for years.
Due to the timing of the baseball and softball seasons, eighth graders are eligible to play before they embark on their high school path. Yet, seniors are not turned away from playing their final year of eligibility either.
“It’s a big advantage, because you have five years to teach them pitch recognition, decision making and the fundamentals of the game,” Bryant said. “It’s a big advantage for sure.”
The other aspect that is opened with the unique season is allowing for four high school sporting seasons. This allows for students to be four-sport athletes, instead of three like in most states.
“Iowa consistently has very high participation across all sports,” Keating said. “Some of that can be attributed to summer baseball and softball.”
According to Keating, having baseball and softball in the summer rather than the spring helps out the track-and-field teams the most.
How does summer season impact recruiting, travel ball?
Collegiate baseball and softball seasons, of course, are played during the spring semester of the college schedule. But the college schedule does also leak into the summer, with the Women’s College World Series played May 28 to June 5 this year, and the College World Series played June 12-22.
However, with baseball and softball seasons wrapped up in all the other states, come summertime, most of the top high school players are either playing travel ball or for their local Legion leagues.
With a summer season, there is no time for travel ball or Legion baseball or softball, for those who participate in Iowa’s summer baseball and softball seasons.
“The answer is no,” Keating said when asked if playing in the summer impacts recruiting. “We’ve had plenty of Division 1 baseball and softball players, plenty of Major League Baseball players come out of Iowa. Kids that are at that level, people find them, and they go find people as well to train with, play with. … I think those kids have been able to navigate it.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iowa is the only state to play high school baseball, softball in the summer. Why?
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