AUBURN — Edward Little High School girls’ track and field athletes reported to coaches Rebecca Hefty and Calvin Hunter at 5:30 a.m. Monday.

By 3 p.m., most of those runners, throwers and jumpers were back at it, at least briefly getting a glimpse at the unprecedented March readiness of their complex.

It’s debatable which behavior should be construed as crazier, although elements gave the afternoon session a decided edge.

Wind gusts created temporary, blinding dust storms and made the thermometer reading of 32 degrees feel like single digits.

“If you take away the weather and the temperature, look at this,” Hefty said. “It’s green.”

Monday was the first day of spring practice for track and field, tennis, lacrosse, baseball and softball teams throughout Maine.

And yes, if you ignored the dramatic temperature swing from last week’s likeness of July to this week’s dead-on impersonation of January, there was something unique about this year’s kickoff.

For every team in the corridor of the state that houses the turnpike, at least, being outside on day one was an option.

That’s almost never the case. Even after the mildest of winters, residual snow banks and patches of mud usually leave local fields unplayable until the first or second week of April.

The sod circled by the EL track that the team shares with the school’s soccer squads is golf-fairway green and in mid-summer form.

“This is our gym. Right here’s our gym,” Hefty said. “There’s not a lot of space to do everything we need in the (actual) gym, so even with the weather, it’s great to be here and be outside.”

Last week’s record-shattering warmth was a week too early for most local athletes.

Maine Principals’ Association sports season policy permitted only baseball players designated as pitchers and catchers to work out beginning Monday, March 19.

All other athletes joined the fray seven days later on an afternoon better suited to alpine skiing.

In fact, it was 10 degrees warmer when the EL girls gathered in the near-darkness for their morning session. After a briefing from the coach, sprinters and distance runners braved rain and ran outside while their teammates stretched and jumped in the gym.

“It was definitely a shock to all of us, that nice weather. We would have like it to stay, but it is spring,” senior Audrey Bennett said. “We had our first early morning practice that we’ve ever had, just to see who is really committed to it. It showed because except for a few people who are sick, everyone was here.”

EL boys went the traditional route, gathering in coach Ryan LaRoche’s room for a meeting after school before bundling up and heading to the track at 3:30 p.m.

The Red Eddies have swept the KVAC boys’ and girls’ championship meets for five straight years and are among the favorites every June at the state meet, where the boys were second and girls third in 2011.

Some of their fiercest rivals — namely Bonny Eagle, Scarborough and Brunswick — live in parts of the state where winter releases its grip more quickly and generally allows them outside at least a week or two earlier.

“It’s great that we can actually be on the track this early,” senior Jaclyn Masters said.

Limited is the buzzword for preseason track and field workouts at EL most years.

It applies both to available gym time after school and serviceable real estate outside the building. Jumpers and throwers would find a patch of green here or there. Runners pounded whatever pavement they could find.

Otherwise, the Eddies were limited to a staple of the indoor track season: Running in the hallways.

“Everything we do out here we transfer to the hall. It stinks,” Hefty said. “We don’t have as many people (in the winter). We would be doing all the same stuff in the halls, but we hate doing that. The math department, they put up with us pretty well in the winter. You can do that with 25 kids. You can’t do that with 60. At that point you’re not getting quality.”

Hefty believes that the 5:30 a.m. wakeup call may have started a new tradition for a sport that is more about self-discipline and grit than glamour.

The EL girls will report before sunrise every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday throughout the early spring, leading up to the first home meet April 12.

“They need to be proud of that,“ Hefty said. “The only other team that would go at that time would be hockey.”

Up the hill from the track, EL tennis players gathered at the chilly mid-afternoon hour to get in their hits. Lacrosse was scheduled for what promised to be a brutal after-dinner workout.

But yes, for a change, everyone was outside.

Even at schools in Oxford and Franklin counties, where being able to play your first home game during April vacation is considered a lofty goal, baseball and softball teams geared up for the extreme rarity of outdoor tryouts.

In the no-cut world of track and field, the premature arrival of spring was an equal godsend.

“The entire field is dry,” Hefty said. “We were throwing in the middle of it. It’s incredible.”

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