The Siuslaw news., June 26, 2021, SATURDAY EDITION, Page 10, Image 10

2B | SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 2021 | SIUSLAW NEWS
REVIEW from page 1B
sports. For me, and I think
for a lot of coaches, having
sports back was the best
[thing] we could ever have
to fix our lives because we
were all miserable. I think
a lot of kids were miserable
and having sports back at
any level was a great ban-
dage on the situation.”
Some people involved
in planning the sports sea-
sons had more resolve than
others; the job of an AD
is a complex and difficult
one as it is. Add to that the
chaos of a pandemic, and
you’re faced with a position
that is not for the faint of
heart.
“Half the people in our
league quit,” said Johnson.
“Half of the ADs left, which
is pretty normal. It’s hard to
explain — it is not an easy
job. But what happened
this year was we sched-
uled four different times.
We scheduled everything,
and then things got pushed
back. Then we scheduled
everything, and they short-
ened the seasons. Then we
scheduled everything, and
they shortened the sea-
sons again, and [finally],
we scheduled everything,
and the seasons swapped
in terms of what sport was
happening first, second and
third.”
To put in so much time
and effort only to have it
completely scrapped three
times was difficult, but the
difficulty did not stop when
the athletics finally started.
“From there it was just
constant changes every
day,” said Johnson. “Chang-
es with the metrics and
measurements. How many
people you can have, spec-
tators or no spectators, and
there was just a revolving
door every day. It was ex-
hausting. It’s an exhausting
job anyway, and it’s hard to
explain to people if they’re
not an AD. … It really was
a perfect storm of discom-
bobulation and constant
change.”
Fortunately, those who
did choose to stick it out
and make athletics hap-
pen for their schools in
the 4A Sky Em League
went through the experi-
ence with like-minded and
equally dedicated individ-
uals.
“I did feel like the ADs
in our league all kind of
bonded,” said Johnson. “We
talked every other day or so
on Zoom calls, just to try to
figure out how we were go-
ing to piece this together.”
Previously, the league’s
Ads would meet once a
month or so.
“We would drive some-
where, and we would all
sit down. But we obviously
couldn’t sit down this year,”
Johnson said. “We were
meeting every three or four
days [on Zoom] because
we were just trying to fig-
ure out how to do this, how
we were going to continue
to make these things work
out.”
The ADs persevered and
saw to it that schools could
participate however possi-
ble, which almost did not
happen at a few points.
“Basketball season was
the worst, which was weird
because it was at the end,”
said Johnson. “But when
two schools came up with
serious COVID issues and
had to shut themselves
down, we had to sit on a call
and figure out how we were
going to make the season
work because those teams,
Junction City and Cottage
Grove, were two of the best
teams in our league and in
the state.
“In a normal situation if
you can’t play a contest, you
forfeit, but we just didn’t
want that to happen. So, we
revised the schedule on the
fly.”
Another task the ADs
were forced to take on this
year was coordinating and
producing the culminating
events, which is typical-
ly handled by the Oregon
School Activities Associa-
tion (OSAA).
“The OSAA did the best
they could do,” Johnson
said. “But I want to cringe
when I hear that term ‘cul-
minating week.’ At first
the OSAA didn’t say they
were or were not going to
host state championship
events, but they finally de-
cided schools could have
the weeks back and do what
they wanted with it.
“Some classifications de-
cided, ‘Hey, we’re going to
do what we’ve always done
and just host these state
championship events our-
selves,’ and some did not do
that,” said Johnson. “But 4A
got together early on and
just said, ‘Why would we
not host a state champion-
ship?’”
It was lucky for those in-
volved in the planning and
coordination of the events
that all were on the same
page as far as their desire to
give the kids every possible
opportunity to have some
semblance of normalcy in
their school year.
“Greg Mulkey, who’s the
AD at Marshfield, and the
group of ADs in 4A that
led the way for culminating
week activities, made it as
much of a state champion-
ship situation as possible,”
Johnson said. “Other than
football, our state cham-
pionships were pristine in
terms of being as much like
they normally would be as
possible. That was cool, but
it was just a fight every day.”
This year, for the first
time in history, Johnson
oversaw Siuslaw Track and
Field hosting both the re-
gional and state champion-
ships at Hans Petersen Me-
morial Field.
“What we did here in
Florence with track and
field was try as best as we
could to host that event
exactly like it would have
been if it would have been
the OSAA hosting it, except
it wasn’t at Hayward Field,”
said Johnson. “It was im-
portant for us to give the
kids something that was as
normal as it could possibly
be because of what we’d all
been through. We’d all been
through heck in a handbas-
ket.”
It was vital for Johnson
and the other ADs in the
4A league that the culmi-
nating events be legitimate,
but also safe.
“When you come to a
culminating situation, kids
and parents know how it’s
supposed to look,” said
Johnson. “So, we tried to
make it as much like it
would have been if none
of this had ever happened
— knowing that, clearly,
the pandemic and people’s
health and safety was more
important than high school
athletics.
“But we felt like we could
be respectful of what was
happening with health and
safety, and still manage to
host events that looked as
much like a regular event
and a regular year as possi-
ble. And that’s what we did.”
He said the 4A classifi-
cation and the 4A ADs in
charge of the culminating
week committee were “di-
aled in” and “steadfast” as
they made state-level cham-
pionships effective mea-
sures of student athleticism
and drive.
It was quite a task indeed,
and, as a result, Johnson
and his colleagues were
lauded by the community
for their execution with the
state track meet in May, and
the kids had an experience
unlike any other before.
Still, Johnson said run-
ning programs as they had
to be run this past year due
to COVID-19 will not be
sustainable long term.
“If there was another
year like this year, I prob-
ably would step down,” he
admitted. “Every day hon-
estly felt like a warzone. But
when you looked around, it
wasn’t hard to realize that
a lot of people were in the
same situation.
“There were people who
were out of work, and I
have so many friends in this
town who own businesses,
like restaurants who were
at 50% capacity or 25% ca-
pacity, and they were just
having to bob and weave
and juggle things to make
it work and stay solvent,”
Johnson said. “So, I always
felt like as much as what we
were doing was hard, I still
had a paycheck; I still had
a job. But [the experience]
certainly wasn’t fun.”
Although it was a strug-
gle for much of the year, the
experience brought John-
son and his associates clos-
er together as a result.
“The camaraderie of my
colleagues in the school, in
the league, in the state … I
always felt like we were all
in it together,” he said. “We
all knew what we were go-
ing through, so we commis-
erated together, and that
brotherhood and sister-
hood was important to just
know [we weren’t] alone.
We just had to get up and
go to work every day.
“It was a different set of
expectations, and an ev-
er-changing landscape, but
we were doing it knowing
that we had seasons, kids
were playing sports.”
Anyone who attended a
Vikings sporting event this
year could palpably feel the
effect playing a live team
sporting event had on the
students at Siuslaw. It was
as though some magic had
returned to the campus.
“I haven’t ever asked an
individual student, but I
know if I [did], for all of
those kids and all they went
through, the fact that they
got to participate in sports,
even in a truncated situa-
tion was … not necessarily
life-changing, but a lifesav-
er,” said Johnson. “I have
never been through any-
thing like this before in my
life, and I never want to do
it again. But I feel like we all
got together, and we made
it work.”
Fortunately, the 2021-
22 school year looks to be
even more promising on
the activities front, with the
OSAA resuming most of
its normal duties and the
majority of schools being
at low-risk because of vac-
cinations.
“The OSAA is supposed
to be back to normal again,”
said Johnson, “so we’re
looking forward to nor-
mal-sized seasons and the
normal number of contests
— and the OSAA is going
to hopefully take over state
championships again.”
As Siuslaw Athletics
moves toward its new nor-
mal, the department will
spend the summer catching
up on tasks that have been
put off due to the mad-
ness of this recently ended
school year’s activities.
“We’re behind on sched-
uling,” said Johnson. “Nor-
mally, by spring break I’ve
finished all the scheduling
for the next year. And this
year, because there were so
many things that are chang-
ing every single day, every
minute, we really didn’t
have a chance to schedule
our contests.
“We finished the fall,
that’s all done except
for cross country, it’s on
OSAA,” he said. “But we’re
still working on winter, and
I haven’t even talked about
spring stuff yet.”
Still — “We’re just excit-
ed that there’s going to a
normal number of contests
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LITTLE from page 1B
and have the wind take
hold the ball and bring it
back towards them.
The wind has not re-
stricted its effect on just
spring sports, but also
during the fall. Any pass
thrown in a windy foot-
ball game can be affected.
Punters try to minimize the
winds affect with low punts
into the wind.
During one Siuslaw foot-
ball game, our punter had
a negative yardage punt.
The wind caught the punt
and brought it back to and
beyond our line of scrim-
mage.
Golfers sometimes keep
their drivers in their bags to
hit irons into a strong wind.
Tennis players need to
change their hitting each
time they change ends. Hit-
ting into and against the
wind every two games can
be a difficult adjustment for
most players.
Just a reminder if you
are attending an outdoor
sporting event in Florence
— wear or take extra layers
of clothing. A good friend
of mine once said, “You
can take it off if you get too
warm but you cannot add
to it if you get cold if you do
not have it.”
Always have extra layers
if you are going to Miller
Park.
for kids,” he said. “This
year was truncated, small
and short, but at least it felt
normal-ish; we got to play
everything and have sea-
sons that were shorter, but
regular. So, we’re just excit-
ed that there’s going to be
regular-sized seasons and
a regular number of con-
tests.”
Moving into the next
school year, Siuslaw will
still be taking precautions
as mandated by the gov-
ernment, and much still
remains to be seen with re-
gard to where the commu-
nity and the pandemic will
be by fall.
“In regard to what hap-
pened with COVID, infra-
structure was in place to
handle it,” said Johnson.
“We’re anticipating there
may still be limitations with
risk factors in terms of spec-
tators, but we’re to the point
now with vaccinations
where even if we’re still un-
der the COVID principles,
I feel like we probably still
can have as many spectators
as might want to get in.
“That’s what I’m antici-
pating, and we’ll just have
to wait and see, because we
really don’t know.”
There is still a degree of
uncertainty, as is the case
with all things COVID-19,
but what is clear is that ath-
letics are moving back to a
place of normalcy for the
Vikings.
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