Lady Monarch pitcher Josie Bumgarner fires the ball toward the plate in this file photo. MHS won a pair of recent games and upped its record to 4-6.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
—
A portion of the world came to a standstill of sorts during Monday afternoon’s total solar eclipse.
Most school districts in Ohio canceled classes and athletic activities for the day.
The Journal-Tribune talked with a couple of local athletic directors about the decision to postpone games and not even have teams conduct practice sessions.
“Our campus shut down for the entire day,” said Fairbanks AD Logan Dunn. “The Union County area was in the direct path of the eclipse.”
There was a great deal of traffic in the area as folks from out of town and/or state ventured to the county to view the moon’s total blockage of the sun.
The eclipse began shortly before 2 p.m. and blockage occurred for a handful of minutes at approximately 3 p.m.
“We made the decision to cancel all activities based on what we found out (neighboring) Triad was going to do,” said Dunn, who previously served as the Cardinals’ athletic director.
“We were supposed to play them at home on Monday,” said Dunn. “We learned last November they had decided to call off school and cancel events on the day of the eclipse.”
Dunn said Fairbanks basically followed Triad’s procedure.
“We knew there would be a great deal of automotive traffic with people traveling here to view the eclipse,” said Dunn. “From a safety factor, we didn’t want any students on the road at that time.
“If we erred, it was on the side of caution.”
Marysville athletic director Joey Day agreed with his Fairbanks counterpart.
“I think it was a good decision to close school and not have any games or practices,” he said. “It was a safety issue and we wanted to be pro-active about it.”
Marysville baseball and softball teams were scheduled to play Dublin Jerome on Monday.
Those games will be rescheduled for later in the spring.
“From what we had earlier heard, the traffic in this area was going to be very heavy,” said Day. “We just followed what everyone else was doing.”
“We just hope everyone stayed safe during the eclipse,” said Dunn. “We were ready to get things re-started on Tuesday.”