It won't be long before the Steinbach ball diamonds and soccer park are open for the year, but for the time being the Steinbach Parks and Recreation department is asking residents to stay off the fields.

Jason Peters with Steinbach Parks and Recreation says many people are eagerly awaiting the beginning of the season for many summer sports, but the rain and snow has set things back a little.

"The soccer pitches are a little different because they drain and they are fine, the ball diamonds, the infields, you think they dry and they are good and then more frost comes out of the ground and they get soft again and so we want people to wait, I know everybody is chomping at the bit already."

Peters says they hope to open the soccer park in the next few days, but if they get on the ball diamonds too early, it will make it much more difficult to do maintenance.

"It creates some ridges and some unevenness that is a little bit difficult early in the year to get nice and flat because we can't take a drag on those diamonds until things dry up, and so it ends up with the washboard type of effect and then ground balls don't take the proper bounces and everything else. It sets us back a little bit if we have to go in there and do a bunch of repairs right before the games start."

Peters says if the weather cooperates the games should start taking place at the ball diamonds as early as next week.