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OSAA board waits on determining spring fate By Kris Henry of the Mail Tribune Apr 01, 2020 04:44 PM A A Sometimes no moves can be viewed as good moves, and that’s exactly what the Oregon School Activities Association’s executive board offered up for high school athletes and coaches Wednesday afternoon. During an online meeting to discuss the latest developments regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the OSAA to suspend the spring sports season on March 13, the board opted against taking any further action Wednesday in the first of two scheduled meetings. The executive board will meet again April 15 to re-evaluate the situation. The initial suspension coincided with Gov. Kate Brown’s directive to close schools statewide through March 31. That closure was later extended through April 28, and was mirrored by a similar extended suspension by the OSAA to the spring sports season. While the status quo stance does still leave the door open for a return to action in May, there remains no guarantee that spring activities will begin at that time. The board has vowed to remain consistent with Gov. Brown’s declarations when it comes to handling coronavirus issues, and any further extensions to school closures would likely lead to a cancellation of the spring sports season. According to a release, Wednesday’s board member discussion centered around the latest information sent out from the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) earlier this week stating that there is a very real potential that students may not return to school this academic year. If the governor orders that in-person student learning is shut down for the remainder of this school year, the release noted that the OSAA will continue to align with the school closures and cancel its spring activities and state championships. “They are in favor of continuing to align with the governor’s orders,” OSAA executive director Pete Weber said to the OSAAtoday website Wednesday. “If the governor ends up shutting down schools for the rest of the year, with no in-person learning, then we’re going to shut down.” While most states like Oregon are still weighing their options at the high school level, a handful of states (Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Virginia) have already canceled their spring sports seasons. The idea of an abbreviated spring sports season was discussed Wednesday and the board approved guidelines developed by Dr. Michael Koester, chairman of the OSAA sports medicine advisory committee, to emphasize student safety if schools are able to reconvene this spring. “We’re all still working through what the specifics and details would be on that, so you don’t have a baseball team trying to play eight games in a week or something like that,” Weber added in his OSAAtoday interview. Among the approved guidelines were an initial seven-day period with practices only and no contests; limiting practices to once per day and no more than three hours in length; maintaining the current requirement of no more than six consecutive days without a rest day; continuing heat warnings as appropriate to weather and baseball pitch count limitations; limiting the number of contests allowed in a week specific to each activity, with more details to come; and emphasizing late afternoon starts and weekend contests when possible to limit loss of class time. A potential shift of spring activities and state championships into the summer months was not supported by the OSAA executive board at this time. The board expressed concerns over increased staffing and personnel costs for school districts already facing uncertain financial impacts, as well as scheduling issues regarding facility availability and the impacts on student-athletes and their families who may already have commitments for jobs, travel, etc. The track and field state championships, originally scheduled to be held at the University of Oregon, were already split out and moved to different venues due to construction timelines for the completion of Hayward Field. Arrangements announced March 18 when the suspension was extended to April 28 put the 6A, 5A and 4A events at Mt. Hood Community College and the 3A, 2A and 1A events at Western Oregon University, both on May 29-30. With Western Oregon University having now shut down all of its athletic facilities until June 30, it will now not be able to serve as host. OSAA staff members are contacting other venues to determine interest and availability should the season go on. Have a story idea? Reach reporter Kris Henry at 541-776-4488, [email protected] , www.facebook.com/krishenryMT or www.twitter.com/Kris_Henry Baseball teams like Ashland, shown last year during a mound visit by head coach Nick Hall (far left), continue to be in a holding pattern while they await word on whether the spring sports season will begin once the current suspension is complete on April 29.{ } PHOTO BY: LARRY STAUTH JR.