SOUTH BEND - As long as Washington is safe enough from COVID-19 to compete in sports, the tentative date to start practices for the local sports of football, volleyball, girls and boys soccer and Willapa Harbor Tri-District Cross Country is February 1. In all, it will include a total of eight local sports. Last Wednesday, Evergreen state schools were given the go ahead by the the WIAA Executive Board, which voted to amend its season schedule, while moving traditional fall sports to WIAA Season 1. The WIAA will review Seasons 2 and 3 at its January 19 meeting.
"I think the WIAA's decision to move fall sports to Season 1 is the right move," Raymond HS Athletic Director Mike Tully told the Herald Friday afternoon. "It makes sense when you look at what is allowed in the governor's new reopening plan. At this point, there is no way for basketball or wrestling to be played in Phases 1 or 2 of the governor's plan. All of the traditional fall sports can be played in Phase 2, so it makes sense to try to get them in first.
"It is great to see that football will be allowed in Phase 2," Tully said. "It gives me hope that we can get a football season in this year. While the WIAA is putting off a decision on Seasons 2 and 3, I think that ultimately, spring sports will move to Season 2 and winter sports to Season 3. All spring sports could be contested in Phase 2, and it gives the maximum amount of time to figure out what needs to be done to have basketball and wrestling seasons."
Willapa Valley HS Athletic Director Jay Pearson told the Herald Friday afternoon, "It is a start in the right direction, however it's going to be real tough for our West Region to meet the criteria in order for us to move into level 2 by February 1st for competition to begin."
South Bend HS Athletic Director Jon Schray told the Herald Monday morning, "We will have a hard time making it to the next phase now that we are tied to the other counties. We will be preparing under the assumption that we will be able to play. As a league we are still creating schedules and moving forward. I just hope that we can at least let the kids get some practices in so they can have some feelings of normalcy."
The WIAA change comes after Gov. Jay Inslee announced his Healthy Washington - Roadmap to Recovery plan last Tuesday (jan. 5), which outlined a new set of guidelines and metrics for the resumption of education-based athletics and activities in Washington. According to the plan, sports will maintain their previously assigned risk levels; however, the level of participation for each activity will vary in Phase 1 or Phase 2.
"The change in guidelines allow all traditional fall sports to be played in Phase 2 while we still do not have a clear pathway to the high risk indoor activities of basketball, competitive cheer and dance, and wrestling" said WIAA Executive Director Mick Hoffman in a press release last Wednesday. "With that in mind, moving fall sports to Season 1 will hopefully provide the most opportunities to participate."
About the governor's plan, which has new guidelines and metrics, Pearson said, "It's kind of too early to tell...however my initial thoughts are that they are more conducive for outdoor sports and more restrictive to indoor sports. I also think it helps the numbers/data for bigger counties by being in a region to spread the numbers/data out, however, it makes it hard for a smaller county like us that might have the numbers/data for competition, but now are diluted from our regional numbers/data."
Season I will only have seven weeks in duration - starting with pre-competition practices Feb. 1 and ending March 20. The local sports scheduled for that season include Pe Ell-Willapa Valley Football, Raymond-South Bend Football, Willapa Valley Volleyball, South Bend Volleyball, Raymond Volleyball. Raymond-South Bend Girls Soccer, Raymond-South Bend Boys Soccer, and Willapa Harbor Tri-District Cross Country.
"At this point, we are planning on competing in all of our traditional fall sports: football, volleyball, cross country, girls soccer, and cheer,' Tully said. "Any preseason preparations by these teams will be dependent on what phase we are in. One of the WIAA's decisions was to extend the out-of-season conditioning time to the end of January, so if we can get to Phase 2, I expect that most of those sports will try to get in some pre-season practices.
"I am really excited about the prospect of getting sports started again," Tully said. "I think it will be a great thing for our student-athletes. They're probably more excited than I am. Just looking at grades, it is obvious that kids need some motivation to keep working, and I hope that this return to sports can help with that aspect. It's been a very busy week, and I hope to stay that way for the next five months.
"We don't have schedules set, but I expect those to be finalized in the next week or so," Tully added. Willapa Valley and South Bend also did not have schedules at press time.
While the WIAA Executive Board will provide a uniform season schedule concluding in regional culminating events, it has granted each WIAA league or district around the state the ability to reschedule seasons to best fit their local communities.
WIAA staff will continue to work with the Department of Health to gain more clarity surrounding the guidelines that were issued last week.
"We are hoping to receive more details that were not included in the Governor's announcement on Tuesday, particularly surrounding indoor sports and activities," Hoffman said. "As we continue to gather more information and evaluate the new metrics, the Board will be able to make better decisions about the remainder of the year."
In addition to changing the sports scheduled for WIAA Season 1, the Board voted to extend the open coaching period at each school up until the day before the first season begins at that school.
Pearson sent out an informative letter to his coaching staffs, which read:
"Willapa Valley is planning to offer all of the sports that we can under the new Healthy Washington - Roadmap to Recovery. The biggest hurdle for us to have sports start on February 1st is to get our Region (Grays Harbor, Lewis, Pacific and Thurston counties) into phase 2 where competition may begin for low and moderate risk sports as well as football. Here at school we will have to get our students updated physicals as we were out of school in June when we normally have them here at school.
"We also have two new pixellot cameras installed this year to accommodate fans to watch games on the NFHS Network due to the limit of crowd capacity due to COVID guidelines. One camera is located on our football stadium on Crogstad Field and the other is located in Tenoski gym. Hopefully, most of our fans can attend events, however, if not, they will still have an option to follow on-line."