Persistent early morning rains cancelled yesterday afternoon's scheduled football practice and pushed the women's soccer team's 5 p.m. media day to this afternoon.

Other campus-based athletes were more fortunate with the inclement weather.

Junior Jesus Vasquez, president of the Arizona running sports club, planned to do his daily run after his shift as a weight room supervisor at the Student Recreation Center ended at 8:30 p.m.

When he woke up this morning at his apartment complex, located west of Interstate 10, Vasquez saw slight drizzles of rain outside but nothing too daunting.

"I went to NAU my freshman year, and I ran in the snow," he said. "Rain's nothing to me."

Juliette Moore, director of the Rec Center, said that more people came in early yesterday morning to use the weight room and the exercise machines, but that traffic trickled down to normal by the afternoon.

The increase in people, she said, was most likely the cause of students wanting to keep fit as school begins anew.

"My thought process is that you can't really attribute (the increase) to the rain," she said.

Political science sophomore Sean Bolton worked at the Rec Center's front desk from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. yesterday and said he noticed a slight decrease in people from the beginning of his shift to midday.

"Generally speaking, it is a little slower," he said yesterday afternoon. "I think people are just afraid of the weather in Arizona."

A native of Seattle, where he spent the first 16 years of his life, Bolton, 27, said he nearly scoffed at some students as they complained of the rain before swiping their CatCards.

"I told them, 'Enjoy it while you can,'" he said.

The rain did put on a damper on some on-campus activities.

Molecular and cellular biology sophomore Emily Goldberg, a member of the Arizona women's ultimate Frisbee sports club, said she saw none of the handful of people, mostly males, who typically pepper the UA Mall on sunny afternoons.

She said one of the dangers in doing activities like Frisbee in the rain is the water that collects in patches through the grass, which can rip up the surface with repeated trampling. To ward off an unwanted injury, she said, she and the team do extra stretching before practices to keep muscles limber.

"I think you do have to be careful," she said. "When the ground's all muddy, it's easier to slip and turn an ankle."

Still, there can be some benefits to a soggy turf. Electrical engineering junior Yvette Olson, treasurer of the women's club rugby team, said that unlike with many sports, rugby can be more fun in adverse conditions.

"We almost get excited when we play (in the rain)," she said. "There's mud ... (and) soft, squishy ground to land on."

Olson recalled a game the team played last spring against UCLA in California, after the playing field had been drenched with rain.

"The match was so intense," she said. "The ground was just a big mud pit."

The danger in playing sports like rugby on a wet field, she said, comes from the demand for proper footwork and physical balance.

During the UCLA game, when the players would lock their arms around each other in a scrum for a loose ball, footing often slipped, sending bodies toppling in turn.

"There's a lot of penalties in rugby when the conditions are wet," she said. "The ball always seems to slip forward when it's in your hands."

The team is expected to start practices Sept. 1, she said. Complications could arise if storm clouds make a return visit beforehand.

"It might be hard to get new people who signed up to come out and play," she said. "A lot of the old members will come out because it's practice and it's rugby."

At times an athlete has no choice but to perform, rain or shine.

Biosystems engineering senior Diana DeRosa, treasurer of the running club and a founding member, remembered her days on the cross country team at Salpointe High School. Her coaches taught the team to run in any climate, just as long as the heat wasn't melting sneaker bottoms to the sidewalk.

"The only time that I don't really go running is when it's 110 degrees," she said. "You just get used to (the weather). It adds to the variability and the unique aesthetics of the sport."