RENTON — The pandemic has struck another blow to local athletics. The WIAA voted to delay the start of winter sports to Feb. 1, 2021 and shorten each sports season to seven weeks apiece at its Nov. 17 meeting.
Practices for winter sports season, the most prominent of which are basketball and wrestling, were originally scheduled to begin Dec. 28, with competitions coming shortly after. However, a surge of positive COVID-19 cases caused the WIAA to create another delay in an already compressed 2020-21 schedule.
“The decision comes in light of surging COVID-19 cases around the state, putting in jeopardy the ability to begin WIAA Season 2 which was scheduled to begin on December 28,” a release from the WIAA said.
Winter sports will end on March 20 with a “regional culminating event,” indicating there will be no state championships this year. The WIAA divided its schools into three regions at the beginning of December, with Districts 5-9 falling into “Region C.” All Eastern Washington schools in the WIAA, including those in Spokane, Lincoln, Adams and Whitman counties, are in one of these districts.
The “culminating event” will be a “final four” tournament within each region for each sport, according to an earlier release from the WIAA.
Traditional fall sports, like football, girl’s soccer, volleyball and cross country will be pushed to a practice start date of March 15. Football practices start a week earlier, March 8, and begin competition March 19. Fall sports season, or “Season 3,” according to the WIAA, ends May 1.
Spring sports, like track and field, baseball and fastpitch softball, will now start practices April 26. The season ends June 12.
The WIAA noted that it may continue to adjust schedules to certain sports if less than 50% of schools in a league are unable to meet Department of Health-mandated guidelines to participate.
In the 15-school Greater Spokane 2A/3A/4A league, which includes Cheney High School, up to eight schools would have to meet the benchmarks for a sport to commence under these guidelines.
In the Northeast 1A league, including Medical Lake, four of the seven would have to do so, according to this guideline.
Most local schools would likely not have met the benchmark for a basketball or wrestling season if it had begun Dec. 28. Both sports are considered high-risk for virus transmission, and local school districts must be in a county that has fewer than 25 positive COVID-19 tests per 100,000 people over a 14-day period to play high-risk sports.
For Spokane County, a county with a population around 522,000, any more than 125 positive tests in the whole county over a 14-day period would put sports competition readiness in jeopardy. The county website’s COVID-19 dashboard has reported 3,140 positive cases in the county over the last 14 days.
The county has reported 13,434 total COVID-19 cases, with 646 hospitalizations and 232 deaths.
Many schools have been holding after-school practices, as the WIAA extended its open coaching period through this fall. The WIAA elected to extend this further, to Jan. 23, shortly before winter sports are now scheduled to commence.
However, recent mandates from Gov. Jay Inslee will create new restrictions on what those practices can look like…for now, at least through Dec. 14, when Inslee’s current four-week mandate is scheduled to end.
No indoor sports practices will be allowed. All after-school practices must be held outdoors, and all athletes must wear a mask. Previously, outdoor sports athletes could remove their masks in some scenarios, but that flexibility is gone.
Low and moderate risk sports, like baseball, softball, cross country, track & field and soccer, may hold intra-squad scrimmages. High risk sports, like football, are still limited to pods of six or less.
Medical Lake athletic director Justin Blayne said the school temporarily suspended its after school practice program effective Nov. 16.
“I was pretty confident the WIAA would be making some announcement,” Blayne said.
Effective Nov. 23, the school plans to offer outdoor activities when possible, which would allow for sports such as cross country, football and soccer to practice according to health standards. Practices will also be contingent on weather.
Blayne noted the outdoor-only regulation is easier for schools on the west side, where temperatures in November are often much milder than in Eastern Washington.
“Here, it could be 20 degrees with three inches of snow,” Blayne said. “But we’ll do whatever we can.”
He added that the coaches will now be challenged to maximize creativity in interacting with athletes, which is especially true for indoor sports such as basketball and wrestling that aren’t allowed to practice in the gyms right now.
When asked whether the WIAA made the right decision in delaying winter sports, Blayne said “absolutely, without a doubt.”
“Unfortunately, with the spike in our state…it would’ve been a pretty tall order to have those sports,” Blayne said. “I like the decision because it gives hope.”
He said he’s interested to see what direction the WIAA will go if its deemed still unsafe to have winter sports on Feb. 1.
In Cheney, school district officials said they have suspended what is referred to as “Summer 2.0,” for now. Summer 2.0 enabled coaches to work with athletes under limited contact circumstances, while following COVID-19 health protocols, in the same manner they are allowed limited contact over the summer. Superintendent Rob Roettger said they are working with coaches on providing virtual workout options for athletes in the interim.
While Inslee’s mandate is set to expire Dec. 14, he has often extended coronavirus-related mandates if he views it necessary to curb the virus.
Drew Lawson can be reached at [email protected].
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