A16
SPORTS
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Culminating week events to be set by regional schools
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County Chieftain, File
Joseph and Enterprise battle it out in a 5-on-5 passing league game last fall. The Oregon School
Activities Association last week announced that the handling of the culminating week for Season
2 would fall to individual schools and regions, rather than trying to orchestrate a statewide event.
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ENTERPRISE — Any
Season 2 culminating week
activities that take place
will be local or regional
events.
That was the conclusion
the Oregon School Activ-
ities Association Execu-
tive Board came to during
a work session Wednes-
day, Feb. 17. The deci-
sion means there won’t be
a statewide championship
event to wrap up the sea-
son, but instead that schools
will be able “to coordinate
and execute local/regional
culminating events at their
discretion,” according to
a press release from the
OSAA Thursday, Feb. 18.
“The OSAA Executive
Board does not want to
put any undue pressure on
schools to participate in a
statewide event that could
potentially place their stu-
dents and school commu-
nity at risk,” the release
states. “Recommendations
from the (Oregon Health
Authority) advise restrict-
ing unnecessary travel
between counties, espe-
cially when they are at
different risk levels. The
group felt that requiring
schools to travel across the
state with the potential for
overnight stays for events
is not prudent at this time.”
The OSAA will adjust
participation
limitations
for teams to have addi-
tional contests during that
week. How the OSAA will
approach the culminating
weeks for Seasons 3 and 4
is still up in the air.
Enterprise High School
athletic director Beccy Nor-
dtvedt said last week she
and other area ADs already
had made the assumption
that the culminating week
would be regionally based.
The bigger challenge for
ADs has been trying to set
schedules on short notice,
especially with the variable
of not knowing the status of
many potential opponents
in counties that were in dif-
ferent risk ranges. Through
the end of last week, for
example, both Union and
Umatilla counties — two
that have several oppo-
nents of Wallowa County
schools — were in extreme
risk, meaning they were
unable to play volleyball
indoors, and football could
be played only with addi-
tional measures being met.
“Football
is
obvi-
ously easier with it being
outdoors, less restric-
tions, (but) without Union
County, and (with) the
counties around us in red,
volleyball can’t play,” Nor-
dtvedt said.
The Enterprise AD said
the athletic leaders at the
respective schools in the
area have been in constant
contact and are working
on a plan in case counties
do drop to lower ranges.
Union County will, indeed,
drop, and is set to be in
the moderate risk category
starting Friday, according
to The Observer.
“We had to go through
a process of fi nding out
who was committed to
playing or not,” Nordt-
vedt said. “There’s actu-
ally been a ton of coordina-
tion between the schools in
Union County and Wallowa
County, and the schools in
the normal special district.
Enterprise is going with
primarily 1A schools.”
Given that all three Wal-
lowa County schools are in
the safe zone for now with
the county listed at low risk
as of publication, Nordt-
vedt said there is a plan
in place to play more con-
tests with Joseph and Wal-
lowa in volleyball in case
games with other counties
get canceled.
“Wallowa, Joseph and
Enterprise, we’re com-
mitted that if some of our
early games are canceled
with Union County schools
we’re gonna play each
other,” she said.
Wallowa AD Mitch Frye
said with the exception
of one long trip to Crane,
the Cougar football team
will be able to play all its
contests close. Currently
Crane, Cove, Elgin, Enter-
prise and Powder Valley are
the teams Wallowa would
play.
“We’re trying to keep it
regional. We have to go to
Crane,” Frye said. “We’re
trying to keep things as
close as possible. Every-
thing we are putting out
right now is totally tenta-
tive (because of a possi-
ble) shortage of offi cials,
weather concerns” and the
pandemic.
And while the details are
still being hashed out, Frye
said the current plan for the
culminating week is to have
the schools on the opposite
side of the region’s 1A spe-
cial district play those on
the other side in a crossover
format, similar to what had
been done during the dis-
trict championship week.
“We’ve been talking
about it,” he said. “Noth-
ing is set in stone yet. It’s
on the radar. We are shoot-
ing for that.”
The volleyball and
cross-country schedules are
still being determined.
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to spay/ neuter two hundred local pets. Hundreds of feral cats were trapped/ spayed/neutered and released.
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