High school athletic directors usually have their fingers crossed at this time of the year. They hope snowstorms don’t cause a backup of games and jeopardize completion of the regular season with the basketball tournaments fast approaching.

With Tuesday’s snowstorm being talked about more in feet than inches, schools have canceled classes and athletic events are being postponed as well. Depending on snowfall amounts and the task of the cleanup, some schools could cancel Wednesday’s classes as well.

There’s also snow in the forecast for Friday.

With only two weeks left in the basketball regular season, teams want to finish their season and get ready for the tournament.

The last countable date for high school basketball teams is Thursday, Feb. 5. The following day is used as a makeup date.

The Maine Principals’ Association wants the games finished on time so it can finalize the Heal point standings, make pairings and complete final preparations for the regional basketball tournaments that begin on Friday, Feb. 13 in Portland, Augusta and Bangor. The preliminary rounds for girls and boys are Feb. 10-11.

“We start to worry about the weather now,” said Rich Buzzell, the athletic director at Marshwood High in South Berwick. “We’ve been very fortunate this winter. The winter gods are getting back at us. Hopefully, we won’t get as much as 2 feet of snow. We’ll batten down the hatches and hope for the best. We worry about storms every winter. It just depends on when it comes. We live in Maine so we expect it. It happens every year, but we always get through it and get the games completed.”

There’s not a problem yet with games backing up, but if the area gets consecutive storms there could be.

“We could be looking at playing back-to-back (days),” said Todd Livingston, South Portland’s athletic director.

The MPA urges schools that when a game is postponed that they play on the next available date.

Schools try to comply, but logistically it’s not always easy.

“We caution schools not to overload games in the last two weeks in their initial scheduling so it doesn’t add to the problems,” said Dick Durost, executive director of the MPA.

“It seems like every other year the weather poses a problem. In the spring, it’s rain instead of snow.”

If a school in the SMAA or Western Maine Conference wants to reschedule a game in the last week of the season, they need to get permission from Gary Stevens, the Thornton Academy athletic director who is the chairman of the Western Maine A and B Basketball Committee.

“We want schools to make up their games this week,” said Stevens.

“In the four years that I’ve been chairman, I’ve only had one or two requests to make up games in the last week of the season.”

Livingston said if a school needs to make up a game in the last week, things can be worked out.

“There’s always a concern when it gets near the end of the season,” said Livingston. “If we get into a situation where we really get nailed, we’ll look at making some adjustments. It’s the nature of the business.”