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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 2020)
Sports 6A — THE OBSERVER SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 6A Saturday, August 8, 2020 Th e Observer OSAA sports season to start in January Each sport will have a seven-week regular season and a ‘culminating week’ ONLINE • For a loook at the OSAA’s tentative schedule for high school sports, see this story at lagrandeobserver.com. By Ronald Bond The Observer SALEM — High school sports in Oregon will not kick off until 2021. The Oregon School Activities Association on Wednesday, Aug. 5, announced it has moved the fall season — including football — to a March start date. Winter sports will begin in January under the new schedule and spring sports will begin in May. OSAA Executive Director Peter Weber said in putting together the cal- endar the executive board looked at what several other western states — Wash- ington, California, and Nevada specifi cally — had done in laying out three dis- tinct seasons and sought to do the same. “The overlap would be limited as much as pos- sible,” he said. “That was the fi rst piece. Second part, wanting to keep fall sports together, winter sports together and spring sports together.” Keeping the seasons intact, he said, was a goal so student-athletes would not have to choose one sport over the other. The calendar change came after Oregon health offi cials announced a school reopening plan that has caused many schools — including La Grande — to make the decision to start the 2020-21 school year online. Large districts in the state have said it would be October or November at the earliest before they could resume in-person teaching. Under the OSAA’s new calendar, there are four sea- sons — Season 1, Season 2, Season 3 and Season 4. Season 2 is for winter sports, 3 is for fall sports and 4 is for spring sports. Season 1 is a period during the traditional fall season where the execu- tive board decided to waive its usual out-of-season Observer fi le photo Blaine Shaw intercepts a pass for La Grande during a game against Baker in 2019. The OSAA announced Wednesday, Aug. 5, it has set a sports calendar for the 2020-21 sea- son that will have traditional winter sports played in January and February, fall sports in March and April, and spring sports in May and June. The fi rst football games would take place the week of March 15. coaching policies. That will allow for sports participa- tion from Aug. 17 through Dec. 27 at the discretion of individual school districts, which would need to adhere to state health guidelines. Weber said the OSAA is awaiting guidance from the Oregon Department of Education on if it would consider allowing stu- dents to take part in activi- ties while engaging in dis- tance learning. He said he expects the requirement of students being in the class- room to take part in activ- ities to continue this fall, which would mean schools would have to indeed reopen in person for ath- letics to resume. “We’re still expecting some more guidance around sports,” he said. “One of the reasons we (chose) the plan we did is it put the fl exi- bility in place either way.” Union Athletic Director Chris Dunlap said having a set calendar allows everyone to begin to devise how they will approach the upcoming school year and sports season. “I think the plan allows schools to get set up and make a plan that is going to work, and then it still allows student-athletes to participate, have a pur- pose,” he said. “It gives kids goals (and) holds them accountable for their actions and grades.” Dunlap said education remains the main priority, and added the emphasis will be on getting students in the classroom before taking a look at how the school will use Season 1. The plan could allow schools to even use Season 1 for competi- tions with other schools that also are open. “We would entertain the possibility of treating the Season 1 like we would the summer, (with) summer league basketball or volley- ball,” he said. Elgin AD and football coach Jeff Rysdam said he is pleased the period of waiting to see what is planned is past. “I can’t say that I’m disappointed,” he said. “When the announcement came out I sent a text to my team. One of my kids said it’s not exactly what Photo by Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group A billboard in Pendleton displays the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” A crowdfunding cam- paign covered the cost of the billboard, and now a similar effort is leading to a Black Lives Matter billboard in La Grande. BILLBOARD Continued from Page 1A School of Law and recently earned a master’s degree in music and vocal perfor- mance from the university. Hawaii has a diverse population, she explained, and plenty of her friends in law school were involved in indigenous causes. Her experience in Hawaii with such a diverse population contrasted with life here. “La Grande is very racially homogeneous. It’s rural, is not close to any big, progressive areas,” she said. “So I think people in La Grande feel like this stuff does not affect them, that racial injustice doesn’t affect them.” She decided to get a Black Lives Matter bill- board in La Grande after seeing one in Pendleton. Black Lives Matter sup- porters erected a billboard in the Round-Up City, and The Observer’s related newspaper, the East Orego- nian, reported the story on what led to the public dis- play. The Observer picked up that story and provided a link to it on Facebook. Carmichael was among the masses who saw the story due to social media. Some of the comments on Facebook, she said, prompted her to take action. She said her fi rst call was to Meadow Outdoor Adver- tising, the company based in The Dalles that handles billboards in the Pacifi c Northwest. The company put her in touch with Paige Snively, a 29-year-old living in Chicago who originally is from Pilot Rock and helped organize the Pend- leton campaign. “I just told her thanks for the great ideas,” Carmichael said, “and she gave me a couple of tips moving for- ward, so here we are.” No doubt the sign will anger some people, she said, but La Grande, and Oregon in general, has a racist past, and that needs to be confronted and reconciled. “I hope the people who look at that sign and get angry about it, at least some of them will stop and con- sider why it makes them so angry and lead them to educate themselves,” Carmichael said, “and if not, at least it sparks the conversation.” She said the hope is the sign will be up in the next few weeks. You can fi nd information about the sign at gofundme.com. we wanted, but if we get a seven-game season and a playoff, let’s get ready.” Under the new calendar, Season 2 will begin prac- tices Dec. 28 and a sev- en-week regular season begins Jan. 11. Season 3 begins practice Feb. 22 and starts contests on March 8, with the exception of football, which would play its fi rst games the week of March 15. And Season 4 practices will open on April 19 and begin games on May 3. In Season 2, teams will be able to take part in eight swim meets, nine wres- tling competitions and 14 basketball games. Season 3 will see seven football games, 10 soccer matches, nine cross-country meets and 14 playing dates for volleyball. In Season 4, baseball and softball will have 18 games, and there will be nine track meets, 12 playing dates for tennis and 14 nine-hole rounds for golf. At the end of each sev- en-week season, there will be a one-week “cul- minating week.” In the press release, OSAA said the culminating week spe- cifi cs will be laid out in the months ahead. Weber said the execu- tive board doesn’t know what the culminating week will look like, but it being just a week long doesn’t rule out the opportunity for students or teams to play for a championship, even though a possible tournament format would look vastly different. “We talked about some different things,” he said. “A football contingency group said maybe that’s a bowl game. In other sports there could be some other opportunities.… Or it could be something dif- ferent. It could be regional in manner.” He noted that state restrictions on gathering sizes could limit what would be allowed. “I’m curious to see what they’re going to come up with,” Rysdam said. The Season 2 culmi- nating week is set for March 1. Season 3’s will be April 26, and May 3 for football. The Season 4 cul- minating week will take place June 21. Dunlap’s hope is for a format that allows for a competition for a state title, but he added even having sports for the students — title opportunity or not — beats the hand they were dealt fi ve months ago. “If I could have my wishes come true, (there would be) some type of smaller state tournament where there is criteria for teams to qualify, and if we couldn’t do that, some type of district or regional tour- nament to have a reason for the league games to matter,” he said. “But if we’re having competition, that’s better than what we had last winter and spring. My biggest takeaway is there is hope for kids, hope for schools and opportuni- ties for the seniors.” Rysdam added the focus needs to shift to the aca- demic side. “Now that we got sports situated and fi gured out, let’s try and get the kids back in the classroom,” he said. “That should be the main thing.” TREASURE VALLEY STEEL, INC. 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