High school football, other sports pushed to spring in Washington state
The crack of the pads will be strangely absent from high school football stadiums across Washington this fall, the Friday night stadium lights dormant.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association announced a modified sports calendar for the 2020-21 school year on Tuesday night, pushing football to early spring along with girls soccer, 1B/2B boys soccer and volleyball.
“Since March, the philosophy of our Association has been to allow students every chance to participate,” said WIAA executive director Mick Hoffman in a release. “We’ve asked our Executive Board and planning committees to be as creative as possible in allowing for those opportunities. These are tough and unprecedented decisions to make, but it has been inspiring to see so many people around the state come together to work on behalf of students.”
The changes create a four-season calendar, with cross country, slowpitch softball as well as alternative seasons for golf and tennis beginning in Season 1, with practice beginning on Sept. 7.
“The Board recognizes that participation in any fall sports will depend on county progression through the phases laid out in Governor Inslee’s Safe Start plan over the coming weeks,” the release states. “The Executive Board will create benchmarks on July 28 to be met in order for WIAA Season 1 to take place. If the benchmarks are not met, the Board will plan to move the remainder of fall sports to WIAA Season 3.”
Wrestling and basketball will take place in WIAA Season 2, with the expectation to begin in late December or early January. Traditional spring sports will occupy WIAA Season 4 to end the school year.
Hoffman and WIAA executive board president Greg Whitmore spoke on a Zoom call with media members across the state Tuesday night, shedding some light on the decision to release a modified calendar for the 2020-21 school year.
“I don’t think anyone in the (virtual) board room thought we could get football played this fall,” Whitmore said. “We’re just not in a position with the state of COVID and everything else to allow us to do that. … It’s excruciating for us to postpone or cancel, certainly. We’re going to do all we can to maintain all the sports.”
One interesting note from the Zoom call: Hoffman said the idea of playing regionalized/localized “state championships” is on the table, to cut down on travel and overnight trips. That would mean there could be multiple championships per classification.
“If we give out five state volleyball 4A state championships, then so be it,” Hoffman said.
The move to a tentative four-season schedule means condensed seasons for all sports. Likely, non-league games will be the first thing axed by many schools. Larger leagues will need to determine how they’ll schedule as well. With football in particular, not all of the teams in a larger league may have the chance to play each other.
“As we put this together, they will know when their season begins, and in order for us to have a postseason, they know when they’ll have to have their qualifying teams,” Whitmore said. “It may not look the same.”
One potential fun aspect of all of this? The potential for four-sport athletes, if the seasons are able to move forward as planned. Hoffman joked that they might implement a “heavyweight division” for football linemen looking to stay in shape in the fall.
“We hope we have a record number for cross country,” Hoffman said.
The modified seasons are as follows:
WIAA Season 1: Cross Country, Slowpitch Softball, Girls Swim & Dive (dependent on additional information from the Department of Health), Golf (Alternative Season), Tennis (Alternative Season)
WIAA Season 2: Basketball, Bowling, Boys Swim & Dive, Gymnastics, Cheerleading, Wrestling
WIAA Season 3: Volleyball, Girls Soccer, 1B/2B Boys Soccer, Football
WIAA Season 4: Tennis, Fastpitch Softball, Track & Field, Baseball, Golf, Boys Soccer, Dance/Drill
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 6:54 PM.
