6A — THE OBSERVER
THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2020
SPORTS
Spring sports season
in Oregon canceled
Read more online at lagrandeobserver.com
TREASURE
VALLEY
STEEL, INC.
Athletic directors,
coaches express
disappointment for
student athletes
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — La
Grande head baseball coach
Parker McKinley still
was trying to process the
news he and anyone else
tied to high school sports
in Oregon received late
Wednesday afternoon: The
spring season is over.
“I’m kind of speechless,”
he said.
Gov. Kate Brown’s
announcement Wednesday
that Oregon would extend
its statewide school clo-
sure through the end of the
school year to continue to
slow the spread of the coro-
navirus also brought an end
to the high school sports
spring season. Following
the governor’s announce-
ment, the Oregon School
Activities Association
delivered its own, canceling
the remainder of the spring
sports season and the spring
sports championships.
“I knew it was coming
with the schools shut-
ting down,” Union athletic
director Chris Dunlap said.
“There was no way…. My
personal thought was that
I felt like it was coming. I
think there was hope that
we would be able to salvage
something and do a short
season. It seems like how
things have evolved with
the COVID-19 situation
we’re in, it became clear it
wasn’t going to happen.”
Brown had closed
schools to on-site learning
through April 28, which left
open a window of hope that
if in-person learning were
allowed following the mor-
atorium it could result in a
spring sports season, albeit
a brief one.
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
An empty Sam Marcum Field, the home of the La Grande
High School softball team, is shown in March. The spring
sports season was offi cially canceled late Wednesday by
OSAA.
“Today’s heart
wrenching decision is dif-
fi cult for all members of
the OSAA family,” OSAA
executive director Peter
Weber said in a press
release. “We empathize
with students and school
communities, especially our
graduating seniors, but rec-
ognize that these cancella-
tions will allow our collec-
tive focus to remain where
it’s most needed at this time
— on the health and safety
of all Oregonians.”
Elgin AD Jeff Rysdam
said he, too, feared the news
was coming, and said his
disappointment was largely
for the seniors who won’t
get to compete in the spring
season. Elgin also was
going to bring its softball
team back in a junior var-
sity capacity and had high
hopes for the track season.
“There’s not much you
can say, it’s a mandate by
the state. It is what it is,”
he said. “I got disappointed
kids, I know that much.”
McKinley said while the
loss of the spring season is
tough, he understands the
reasons behind the move
given the spread of the
coronavirus throughout the
world.
“It’s so much bigger. I
know what we have going
on in our world right now is
really important,” he said.
There haven’t been any
athlete events in the state
since March 12, when the
original ruling from the
state brought an abrupt end
to the basketball season
during the fi nal week of the
state tournament.
Dunlap’s daughter, Ella,
plays for La Grande and
was in Forest Grove for the
beginning of the tourna-
ment when it was canceled,
so he knows the feeling of
disappointment as an AD
and a father.
“It’s hitting me, too, in
different ways,” he said.
Dunlap added the season
being offi cially over is “a
letdown, a disappointment,”
and said students “gotta
fi gure out some other way
to fi ll that void at this time.”
McKinley added there
still are a lot of questions to
be answered in the coming
days and weeks, but he is
trying to focus on how to
take the next step — akin,
he said, to taking another
pitch in baseball.
“I try to process things
quickly and try to fi gure
out how to move forward,”
he said. “Something (may
go) a direction you don’t
necessarily want it to go or
expect it to go, but the next
pitch is coming. How you
respond to that is how you
defi ne your success. I’m
ready for the next pitch.”
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