The Oregon School Activities Association is headed toward another critical meeting. The organization’s executive board meets Dec. 7. Afterward we will know a lot more about what the activities schedule will look like moving into 2021.
The current OSAA calendar calls for practice in the Season 2 sports of basketball, wrestling and swimming to start Dec. 28. The problem is that basketball and wrestling are considered full-contact sports, and thus prohibited. For now.
The state is scheduled (there is that word again) to come out of its two-week freeze as Our Town hits your mailbox. Will the coronavirus caseload drop enough so that Gov. Kate Brown can ease the restrictions that took effect Nov. 18? Good question.
And for the OSAA there is no wiggle room. State policies and orders become OSAA policies and orders.
“The OSAA is a private, nonprofit association but is bound to follow the governor’s executive orders, OHA guidance, etc. just like our schools,” Peter Weber, the OSAA’s executive director, told Our Town. “Nearly 245 of our member schools are public schools in Oregon that are also bound to follow these directives.”
Season 2 (think of it as the “normal” winter sports season) is scheduled to conclude in early March. Season 3 consists of the fall sports of football, cross country and soccer. It is scheduled to start with practices on Feb. 22 and conclude in early May. Season 4, the spring sports of tennis, softball, baseball, golf and track and field, is scheduled to begin practices April 19 and conclude June 26.
Cramming that many seasons into far shorter periods of time will mean fewer contests and little chance of a legitimate state champion in most of them.
Scheduling (there is that word again) will likely be different in ways other than the drop in the number of games. The OSAA has decreed that schools are under no obligation to participate in their assigned districts and schools are being encouraged to schedule games closer to home, regardless of classification or district slot.
How might such a system play out here?
Regis might wind up playing some of its old Tri-River conference schools rather than taking trips to Oakland, and Oakridge. Will Stayton and Cascade keep traveling over the pass to Sisters? Seems doubtful. And, also, just think about the possibility of a boys soccer match between Stayton and Silverton. I’d be there in a heartbeat.
All three upcoming seasons have set aside a week for a “culminating event.” I am guessing we will hear more about what this might mean after Dec. 7. State playoffs for football are just not in the cards, although there are tantalizing possibilities for team sports such as baseball, softball, soccer and basketball, where a one-week, eight-team state tournament would be possible.
As long as you have a way to select who those eight teams are. That will be harder this year as well, as the OSAA already has pulled the plug on its usual state rankings for team sports.
A one- or two-day state tournament for wrestling, swimming tennis, golf and cross country/track and field also SEEMS possible, but events such as those face challenges just based on the sheer number of people (athletes, coaches, officials and spectators) that would need to be in the same place at the same time amid a pandemic.
Stay tuned.
