FAULKTON – It has been a typical South Dakota spring in the fact that numerous sporting events have already been postponed or canceled. Many track and field squads have competed just once this season (indoors or outdoors).

Then there are the Faulkton Trojans who have yet to be involved in any type of competition so far this spring.

“It’s getting a little worrisome,” said Faulkton coach Chad Spicer. “I know the kids are kind of getting a little anxious, too. Practice isn’t all that fun. It’s just time to get out and run.”

Faulkton, which did not compete indoors this spring, did have a chance to participate in an outdoor meet 10 days ago in Redfield, but decided not to go because of cold and windy conditions, Spicer said.

As a result of numerous cancelations, the Trojans are heading into the back half of April without any baseline for times and distances this year.

“We have a few events that I think we can be pretty good at it, both boys and girls,” Spicer said. “With our relays you kind of test a few things, because there’s a few kids you can swap in and out.”

However, there is getting to be less and less time to experiment. Once the Trojans actually get started, they will have to get down to business.

“You have to focus a little bit more now and see where you’re going to put your kids or where you think they’re going to do best,” Spicer said.

The Trojans have gotten outside for practice when they could, however, even that has been tough with so many windy days in the past couple of weeks.

As a result, Spicer has had to try to come up with creative ways to keep his athletes motivated for the upcoming season.

“That’s the tough part of the whole thing,” he said. “You try to do a few games where they’re still working pretty hard at it.”

Spicer said the one of most difficult parts of practicing indoors is the lack of throwing spaces, especially for the discus throwers.

The lack of competition has already been felt by the athletes.

“You hand out the uniforms,” Spicer said, “and it was like, are we going to get to use them?”

Faulkton is scheduled to compete at a meet in Onida on Thursday.

Spicer said this is not the first time something like this has happened to the program. He said in 2018, the team’s first competition took place on April 18.

He said the athletes have been able to go over to the school’s track when they’ve had opportunities. He believes that when the time comes, the Trojans will be ready to go all out.

“We’ve actually had some pretty good practices,” Spicer said. “I talk to the kids, too. ‘You think you’re ready for four events?’ Most of them are like yes, let’s get it going.”

The Trojans aren’t all that far behind other teams that have only competed once or twice, but Spicer knows that his athletes will not have any time to waste as they prepare for the state meet in slightly more than five weeks.

“Right now, I think we have 7-8 meets, yet. We’ve missed three,” Spicer said. “We can’t miss any more than that.”