PORT ANGELES — Kids on the North Olympic Peninsula want to return to playing competitive prep sports and are trying to make their voices heard to state leaders on the issue.
Gov. Jay Inslee recently loosened the COVID-19 metrics to encourage more schools to reopen to in-person learning. However, Inslee’s proclamation did not specifically address prep sports, which are set to begin in Feburary. His order would encourage schools to allow some in-person learning with infection rates as high as 350 per 100,000 over a two-week period.
After Inslee’s announcement, some North Olympic Peninsula school districts are considering returning to in-person learning after the winter break is over. However, there is no plan yet to accelerate returning to prep sports or make it easier to play sports considered “high risk.”
With current metrics of not allowing high risk sports to start with an infection rate of 75 per 100,000 or higher, sports such as basketball, football and wrestling could not begin under the guidelines in many areas of the state. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association met last week and set a Jan. 4 date to discuss possibly establishing new metrics that might allow a wider range of prep sports to begin.
Port Angeles Roughrider Anna Petty
Port Angeles Roughriders football coach Brent Wasche and boys’ basketball coach Kasey Ulin are featuring a “Let Us Play” campaign on Facebook, showcasing testimonials from student-athletes about what sports means to them.
“It’s a positive non-partisan campaign to have our state leaders take a look at the metrics,” Wasche said.
Wasche and Ulin have gotten dozens of Port Angeles High School students to participate in the campaign and they have posted their testimonials on their Facebook walls. In their videos, student-athletes talked about the importance sports plays in their lives and ask state leaders to allow sports to return.
“This year has been extremely tough. We’re asking our state leaders and our governor to take into consideration all the schools that have successfully gone back to school and done extra-curricular activities. We’re asking that they let us do the same responsibly and safely,” Riders’ baseball and football player Kole Acker said.
Willow Harvey, a freshman wrestler for the Roughriders, said that athletes miss the togetherness with their teammates.
“Having teammates is like having another family,” she said. “For many students, that is very important and needed right now.”
Jaida Wood, a basketball and soccer player for the Roughriders, said the pandemic has been particularly rough on kids losing their senior years of school.
“Don’t forget about us seniors. This is our last year to get things done. I will do my part by masking up so it’s safe to play,” Wood said.
“I’m so ready and willing to do my part so we can play again,” Riders softball and soccer player Teagan Clark said in her testimonial.
Port Angeles Roughrider Bailee Larson
Bailee Larson, a basketball and soccer player for the Riders, stated, “sports is a big part of my life and I’ve been playing as long I can remember. I am ready to do my part and play.”
Anna Petty, a Riders soccer and softball player, said “this pandemic has been very hard on my teammates and I. We only have four years to represent our school and community and to play high school sports. If we follow what is working in other states, we can open up and play sports, too.”
In his own testimonial, Wasche said Inslee’s recent order was a step in the right direction but that athletes need more.
“While [last week’s] news was an amazing step forward for our schools and younger students, it did not address many of the needs of athletes here in Washington,” Wasche stated in his video.
“Here in Port Angeles, we safely conducted practices with hundreds of kids across multiple sports with zero instances of COVID-19 exposure or transmission linked to school contact. On a much larger scale, states like Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas and Arizona have all shown that participation in interscholastic sports has been been a significant vector for transmission,” Wasche said.
“This can be done, and it can be done safely. There’s real data showing that it works,” Wasche said.
To make this point, Wasche said that in the state of Wisconsin, 30,000 student-athletes have returned to play at more than 200 high schools with only five known COVID-19 cases.
He also said that for some kids, sports is what motivates them to come to school and work to keep their grades up. Wasche said he had personal experience with this growing up.
“Football is what got me to school every day,” he said. “Sports brings us together. The stands in Port Angeles are full on Friday nights. Sports brings the community together. It hurts small towns like ours.
“By giving us sports, we can help to get back to some normalcy,” he said.
