The Observer., October 24, 2020, Page 7, Image 7

Sports
7A
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Th e Observer
High schools mull idea of regional play
By Corey Kirk
Baker City Herald
If high schools in
Eastern Oregon resume
competitive events in 2021,
the teams might seek to
limit their opponents to rel-
atively nearby schools to
reduce travel and make
it easier to comply with
COVID-19 precautions.
This regional approach
would prioritize distance
between schools rather than
whether they’re in the same
district or league.
Athletic directors from
regional high schools, while
in the midst of the series
of three “mini-sessions”
this fall that allow teams to
have practices, also are dis-
cussing a regional approach
to scheduling for when reg-
ular contests begin.
“We believe it is pru-
dent to restrict our travel
to schools closer to home,
and these schools offer us
competitive games for our
players,” said Beccy Nor-
dvedt, athletic director at
Enterprise High School.
“Decreasing the risk of
exposures contributes to
being able to not only con-
tinue to practice and com-
pete, but also helps to keep
our doors open for students
to attend school in person.”
On Oct. 15, the Oregon
School Activities Asso-
ciation, which sanctions
high school sports in the
state, issued a memo to
schools covering a wide
range of topics. The memo
states that OSAA’s “Execu-
tive Board has determined
that schools will not be
required to participate in
their assigned leagues/spe-
cial districts for the 2020-21
school year.”
The memo continues:
“While current league/spe-
cial district alignments may
continue to work for some,
many schools are fore-
casting signifi cant travel
and transportation issues
that will impact current
structures. Availability
of buses and bus drivers,
increased costs due to pas-
senger limits and trans-
portation guidelines, and
concerns for lengthy trips
in an enclosed bus envi-
ronment were among the
issues raised by the dele-
gates. Schools will continue
to determine their own
schedules which will likely
include more cross-classi-
fi cation contests. Both gov-
erning bodies were res-
olute in their belief that
all schools in the state,
regardless of classifi ca-
tion, will need to work col-
laboratively to ensure that
schools are able to fi ll their
schedules.”
Buell Gonzales Jr.,
athletic director for the
Baker School District, said
regional athletic directors
are ready to coordinate to
meet the OSAA directive.
“We’ve been meeting as
Eastern Oregon ADs and
we’ve just been keeping in
touch with one another and
working our way through
this,” Gonzales said. “We
are going to wait to prob-
ably fi nalize a lot of that til
early December.”
In a year that has been
far from normal for high
school athletics due to the
pandemic, with most state
basketball tournaments
and the entire spring sports
schedule canceled, athletic
directors in Eastern Oregon
are focusing on getting stu-
dents back to competition
safely
“We want our kids to
play, and we will do what-
ever it takes for them to
play,” La Grande Athletic
Director Darren Goodman
said. “If we have to stay
regionalized, then we will
stay regionalized.”
With the winter sports
season scheduled to start
Dec. 28, another topic that
OSAA ALSO
SUSPENDS
RANKING
SYSTEM
The same day the Oregon
School Athletic Association
issued the memo directing
schools to “prioritize local/
regional play when sched-
uling games,” the organi-
zation also suspended its
ranking system.
The OSAA uses the system
to determine playoff slots.
The suspension covers
rankings for the entire
school year in all divisions.
The memo states schools
will continue to deter-
mine their own schedules,
which will likely include
more cross-classifi ca-
tion contests, including 1A
schools competing with 2A
and higher schools if both
agree.
“A traditional state cham-
pionship event may not
be possible in many activ-
ities,” the OSAA memo
stated.
Playoffs and champi-
onships (“culminating
events”) may instead be
regional, with options for
schools to opt out or opt in,
the memo said. A decision
on what Season 2 (Dec. 28
to March 6), which includes
boys and girls basketball,
will be made on or before
the OSAA’s Dec. 7 exec-
utive board meeting. The
status of Season 3, Feb. 22
to May 1 (football, volley-
ball and cross-country) and
Season 4, April 19 to June
26, (track and fi eld, soft-
ball, baseball, golf) remain
uncertain.
could pose a challenge is
transportation.
“If we get to that point,
the assumption would be
that we would take district
transportation so the kids
are safe going from event to
event,” Pendleton Athletic
Director Mike Somnis said.
“Being as far out as we are,
having parents drive out to
their games isn’t feasible
and isn’t safe.”
For sports with larger
numbers of players, schools
will likely need to employ
multiple buses for each trip.
“You got to have at least
3 feet (between students),
which means that you could
put one person per seat,”
Gonzales said. “Then it
becomes a monetary issue,
if you are taking all 60 kids
from the football team, then
you’re taking three buses.”
As of now, the issue of
scheduling games is moot
for certain sports.
The OSAA’s Oct. 15
memo notes that Oregon
Health Authority guide-
lines continue to pro-
hibit full-contact sports,
including wrestling, basket-
ball and football. The fi rst
two sports are traditional
winter sports, the season for
which starts Dec. 28.
According to the memo,
OSAA offi cials have talked
regularly with the gover-
nor’s offi ce and the OHA
“regarding the timeline
for possible reconsider-
ation of these policies but
thus far has received no
indication of any pending
reconsideration.”
Somnis, the Pendleton
athletic director, said that
prohibition is a concern.
“I think there is some
worry, especially with
cases around the state
going up right now, and
you just wonder if some
of these restrictions will
be lifted so that we can
wrestle, that we can play
basketball,” Somnis said.
“There is some logical,
realistic concern when you
look at the metrics, and
you look at the things that
have to happen to get to
that point.”
Another potential hurdle
for the resumption of high
school sports is the state
rule prohibiting indoor
competition, including bas-
ketball and volleyball, for
high schools that have only
The Observer, File
The La Grande High School football team takes on Pendleton in this photo from the 2016 season. Schools in Eastern
Oregon could move to playing only regional contests for 2020-21 when sports seasons begin.
online classes. That list
includes many high schools
in Eastern Oregon.
Indoor competition is
allowed only for schools
that have either a hybrid
schedule, with students in
classrooms some days, or a
full in-person schedule.
As with the ban on
full-contact sports, OSAA
has not received a timeline
from state offi cials about
the possibility of the state
reconsidering the indoor
competition policy.
Playoff possibilities
The OSAA’s current
schedule plans for a one-
week period, at the end of
each sports season in 2021,
that would allow for play-
offs and, potentially, a state
championship event.
Nordvedt, the Enterprise
athletic director, said she
believes it would be diffi cult
to make that happen, since
playoffs usually involve
teams traveling from one
part of the state to another.
It’s not uncommon for
teams from Eastern Oregon
to travel to the Coast, and
vice versa.
“It is hard for me to
imagine that it will (happen
in the normal way) due to
both increased chances
of exposure and spread of
COVID, but also because
across the state many
schools have not been able
to bring kids in to even
practice at this point,” Nor-
dvedt said.
But Goodman, the La
Grande athletic director,
remains optimistic that
some type of playoff system
is viable.
In the Oct. 15 memo,
OSAA offi cials wrote the
playoff issue generated “tre-
mendous feedback” during
the organizations recent
executive meetings.
“This will hopefully
include state champi-
onship-like events but
depending on gathering
restrictions, travel con-
straints and fi nancial con-
siderations for schools and
the association, a traditional
state championship event
may not be possible in many
activities,” the memo reads.
As with the scheduling
for regular-season games,
a regional approach might
replace the normal playoff
and state championship
format, according to the
memo.
This replacement system
could include a schedule
that allows schools from
multiple classifi cations to
compete for a state cham-
pionship. That format
is already used for cer-
tain sports, such as tennis,
where players from 1A, 2A,
3A and 4A schools compete
at the state tournament.
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