There won’t be any league basketball games for Coupeville Middle School students like Lyla Stuurmans this school year. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
It will likely be a lost year.
While Coupeville High School sports teams continue to work towards a possible return to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears that middle school athletes won’t have the same chances.
CHS/CMS Athletic Director Willie Smith announced Wednesday that he and other league officials have agreed to “make the difficult decision to postpone any official league games this year except for a possible track and field season later in the year.”
During a normal school year — which this is certainly not — CMS athletes would also compete in volleyball, girls and boys cross country, girls and boys basketball, and boys soccer.
Smith said there were many factors considered before the decision to cancel was made.
“The spread of our league schools in counties makes it difficult for any consistent plan in creating equitable playing opportunities,” he said.
“We are split into two separate regions and if half can play and others can’t, is that equitable, and we decided it was not.”
With regions across the state in vastly different places in terms of number of COVID cases and hospitalizations, plans to return students to in-person learning are often radically different from school to school.
Add on the crush of schools possibly trying to play shortened high school seasons, and it became too much.
“The differing plans for return to school for our middle school students is widely varied and transporting middle school students to and from practices, let alone games, would fall mainly upon our parents and we didn’t think that was feasible or equitable for all students,” Smith said.
“We were (also) concerned about field/gym/site availability, as well as a real concern about the availability of officials.”
While the news is certainly downbeat, there is some hope, however.
Smith has worked relentlessly to find ways to get his student athletes back in action, taking advantage of the state opening up the ability to practice.
He and the AD’s for the Oak Harbor and South Whidbey school districts are discussing the possibility of creating a three-team local league for the short term.
“It is very early in the planning stages,” Smith said. “Regardless of the outcome of this, I am also going to be working with our middle school coaches and administration to at least provide some intramural opportunities throughout the remainder of the year for our middle school students.”
With Coupeville moving from 1A to 2B this school year, the school is allowed to use CMS 8th graders to fill out high school teams.
But, Smith cautions this would only happen under certain circumstances.
“The short answer is no, we are not unless we need them to help salvage a program,” he said. “The intent of the rule and our philosophy of the league is that we will not bring up 8th grade students just for the sake of bringing them up, or because they are a good athlete.
“We will only bring them up if we don’t have enough high school students to create a team and participate during the season, and that is what we will do this year.”
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