Spring has definitely not sprung.

Not even close.

The spring sports season in the Butler County area has been one of the worst I can remember.

Sure, there have been some pretty bad late-March and early Aprils in the past, but nothing like what we’ve seen so far this year.

When it hasn’t rained, it’s snowed. When it hasn’t rain or snowed, some strange, evil mix of both has fallen.

It’s been cold — brutally cold. And windy. Dorothy-in-Kansas kind of gales.

Click your heels together three times and pray yourself to Aruba — so you can play a game.

You know the weather has been frightful when track meets and tennis matches get postponed in droves.

Track athletes will pretty much run in anything — and have — the WPIAL championships from a few years ago comes to mind.

The Knoch Relays Saturday were canceled because of the snow and cold.

Kind of hard to run a relay with two inches of snow on the track.

It was supposed to be the fifth year of the event, which is a unique one for Butler County.

Mother Nature said, “Not so fast, my friend.”

Grove City played its first tennis match last week. The season was supposed to begin in mid-March.

Some baseball was played last week, though, in conditions that would have been poor for football.

The Butler baseball team played in white-out conditions at times Wednesday night against Vincentian Academy, prompting a pair of snow delays.

Kelly Automotive Park public address announcer Jay Miranda turned to me in the press box during the first delay and said, “I don’t have any snow delay music.”

So, he played Christmas songs instead.

Golden Tornado shortstop Connor Ollio hit a line drive into the left-center gap during one of the squalls and not a single player on the field even flinched because they couldn’t see the baseball through the snow.

Yet, the Tornado and Royals persisted through the weather and finished the game, a 10-0, mercy-rule win by Butler.

Perhaps the most amazing feat of that night was the weather didn’t really seem to aversely affect the players all that much, even with 20-plus mph wins and wind chills in the teens.

Well, except for the not-being-able-to-see-the-ball-off-the-bat thing.

Those are some hardy players. Special props also goes out to Butler pitcher Nash Bryan, who took the mound for his scintillating, three-strikeout inning in quarter sleeves.

Friday’s cold rain, though, did affect the players.

Butler and Armstrong combined for 18 walks in a game mercifully shortened to four-and-a-half innings.

It was one of those situations where having a turf infield was detrimental because it gave the umpires and teams a false sense that they could soldier through.

Just because you can play a game doesn’t mean you should.

Still, teams are desperate to hit the field now and get out of the gym. They’re getting a serious case of cabin fever.

It’s palpable.

Some fields are still so wet you could stock them with trout and grab a fishing line.

The beginning of this week doesn’t look very promising, but warmer days will be here soon enough.

The forecast calls for a high of 70 degrees on Friday.

That’s a start.

For some local teams, it will also be the start of their season. I’m sure they wondered if they’d even get there.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.