8A — THE OBSERVER
School reopening
criteria made fall sports
season more unlikely
he OSAA executive
ones with large high schools
board is set to meet
— out of the picture?
next week to fur-
In a conversation last
ther discuss how to proceed week, Elgin Athletic
with the fall sports season.
Director Jeff Rysdam said
The execu-
one sug-
tive board
gestion is
RONALD
last week
to have the
delayed
leagues/
BOND
the start of
districts
SPORTS EDITOR
the season
each
to Sept. 23,
school
and cited the need for more
plays in to have athletics
guidance from state author- make the call on how they
ities on their plan to reopen
handle the fall schedule.
schools.
Maybe play a set of league
The guidance is now
games and have a league
here, and it just made
tournament, just so the stu-
OSAA’s job a heckuva lot
dent-athletes can have a
tougher.
season, even if OSAA can’t
Gov. Kate Brown and the move forward.
Oregon Health Authority
With what has come
essentially laid out a num-
down in the last couple of
bers-based criteria for
days, that is likely the only
school’s to meet in each
way there will be athletics
county — and, the state as
in the fall.
a whole — to reopen their
The only other choice
doors to in-person learning
seems to be to move the
in the fall.
fall season to the spring, as
Academics and athletics
NAIA and several states
at the prep level go hand-
already have done.
in-hand — academics need
to be in place for athletics
to happen. No school, no
sports.
It will interesting to see
is if districts that engage in
only distance learning elect
to allow students to play
sports.
A report Wednesday
from the Corvallis Gazette-
Times stated the Corvallis
School District is sus-
pending athletic activities
until further notice, noting
the need for in-person
learning.
Portland Public Schools
and Salem-Keizer Public
Schools also elected to pro-
ceed with distance learning
until November, according
to The Oregonian and
Salem Statesman Journal,
respectively. And a press
release from Eugene 4J
Schools this week said it is
going with online learning
until October at the earliest.
If other districts follow
the lead of Corvallis that
in-person learning is
required to play in the fall,
the decisions may force
OSAA’s hand, but I’ll come
back to that in a moment.
By the new standards,
the state needs to have three
weeks in a row with a posi-
tive test rate for COVID-19
of 5% or less. Oregon
last week was under that
mark for the fi rst time in
a month when it ticked in
at 4.8%, but this week, as
of Wednesday, the state is
trending at 5.7%.
Even if you hit that stan-
dard, the county numbers
still will be tricky. Yes,
there is an exception that
allows counties a higher
mark, but the exception is
only triple the number of
cases each week.
Union County needs to
have less than three cases
per week (less than nine
under the exception) for
three straight weeks to open
schools, and, by extension,
sports. No cases in a week
helps, and two more weeks
would allow the county’s
schools to reopen. But one
uptick that may seem small
at fi rst (for instance, fi ve
cases in back-to-back days)
at any time could reset the
county clock or, if in-person
was in place, move it back
to distance learning only.
Here is where the bigger
issue comes into play for
OSAA: having 36 coun-
ties to account for, and
schools in each of those
counties. You’ll likely have
counties that meet the cri-
teria and others that don’t.
Multnomah, Umatilla,
Malheur or Marion coun-
ties aren’t opening any-
time soon. How then does
OSAA put a statewide plan
in place for the fall season
when you have some coun-
ties that will qualify for a
sports season and others
that won’t?
Now circle back to the
conundrum with the move
by Portland, Salem, Eugene
and Corvallis education
leaders. How does OSAA
not only put a plan in play
that can accommodate met-
rics for each county, but
with four major districts —
T
THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2020
SPORTS
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