The snow that covers baseball and softball fields in the central Maine area is piled up on tennis courts as well. High school teams are struggling to find practice space, and with the Ascona Tennis and Health Club in Augusta closed, court time is at a premium.

Some teams have been able to get on the court at Champions in Waterville, but there is only so much court time to go around.

"I haven't really had a chance to see the kids because our courts have 18 inches of snow on them," Hall-Dale boys coach Sam Hayes said.

At Erskine Academy, boys coach Ryan Nored has had his team spend the first two days of practice working mostly on fitness. His team has been able to do some soft-toss type drills in the batting cage that was set up for baseball and softball and Nored found some softer tennis balls that weigh the same as regulation ones to do some drills with as well.

"You can't really hit tennis balls in the gym," Nored said.

At Waterville, the girls team has been practicing at the Alfond Athletic Center, while the boys have spent time at Colby College and Champions.

"They started clearing our courts and we hope to get out there soon," Waterville girls coach Donna Nale said. "(At Alfond) you don't have the depth of a tennis court because we set them up the length of the basketball court."

Waterville boys coach Rich Filteau said half of the North Street Courts that Waterville plays on were cleared recently. He hopes to be on the courts as early as Monday.

At Erskine, Nored hopes to have his team shoveling on Thursday.

"We'll try to clear some lines and that usually gets it going," Nored said.