WIAA modifies high school sports calendar

Posted

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) moved moderate- and high-risk team sports, originally scheduled for fall, to spring in order to follow governor Jay Inslee’s Safe Start plan for mitigating the spread of Covid-19.

For the Borderites, the changes mean all fall sports – football, volleyball, cross country and girls soccer – will play their competitive seasons in the spring, and sports seasons will be shortened by about 30 percent for the 2020-21 school year.

The WIAA created four sanctioned seasons, and schools can schedule 70 percent of typical allowable contests for each sport in all seasons, according to a July 21 press release on the
WIAA website.

The WIAA board emphasized that the proposed schedule is tentative and likely to change if cases rise. At a Blaine school district board of directors meeting on July 27, superintendent Christopher Granger said the WIAA board will meet frequently in the next few weeks to continue efforts toward providing student athletes with the hope of competing this school year.

The proposed sports schedule, with the first week of each season designated to practice, for the school year is:

Season 1 (September 7 to November 1)

-Cross country (alternate season)

-Golf (alternate season)

-Tennis (alternate season)

Season 2 (December 28 to February 28)

-Basketball

-Bowling

-Wrestling

Season 3 (March 1 to May 2)

-Volleyball

-Girls soccer

-Football (practice starts February 17 and playoffs go till May 9)

-Cross country

-Golf (alternate season)

-Tennis (alternate season)

Season 3 (April 26 to June 27)

-Tennis

-Softball

-Track & Field

-Baseball

-Golf

-Boys soccer

The WIAA executive’s board ruled July 28 that the new fall sports for season 1, will act as alternate seasons with those sports’ culminating events taking place in season 3, according to a July 28 press release on the WIAA website.

In a WIAA staff video presentation on July 29, WIAA executive director Mick Hoffman said alternate seasons allow, but do not force, schools and leagues to schedule the majority of their competitive seasons within them while two additional contests and the culminating events are held during the traditional season. This gives schools and leagues some flexibility in their calendars if contests are canceled due to the effects of Covid-19.

The board also approved an out-of-season training window, which allows for student athletes to coordinate their own practices without coaches, during the fall for all sports. It will run from August 17 to September 27 with an out-of-season coaching period from September 28 to November 30. This fall practice window allows football 20 days of contact practice during the coaching period.

Granger said he suspected to see a pause on high school sports until January 4, 2021, based on what he heard in a virtual WIAA board meeting.

If many more schools make the switch to online learning for the upcoming school year, Granger said he thinks the district and the WIAA need to be cautious about sending conflicting messages about sports. Telling students that it is unsafe to come to school for math class, but safe for a student to come to school to play basketball or have cross country practice would be contradictory, he said.

Granger said all 295 districts in the state are grappling with athletics being possibly delayed or canceled.

“We know that students need to be active,” he said. “We also know that the engagement in athletics, and band, and choir, and all those other extracurriculars, is what motivates a lot of students to do well in school. So, if they lose any hope that there isn’t going to be a season, it’s potential that they will be disengaged and we don’t want that.”

The WIAA executive board and planning committees are working under the “Return-To-Activity Guidelines,” which provides Covid-19 guidance for opening high school athletics and activities. It was supported and co-authored by the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS), Washington Department of Health, the Governor’s Office and WIAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committees (SMACs).

The guidelines include: Workouts should be conducted in groups of no more than six people (five students and one coach), students should be encouraged to wear cloth face coverings, and face coverings are mandatory for all coaches, officials and other contest personnel.

Due to the near certainty of recurrent outbreaks this coming school year, the guidelines state that schools must be prepared for periodic closures and the possibility of some teams having to isolate or quarantine for two to three weeks during the season.

More information about the guidelines for opening athletics and activities can be found here: bit.ly/3kdXpRi.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here


OUR PUBLICATIONS