Will Coupeville High School football players return to Mickey Clark Field this spring? (David Stern photo)
High school football coaches from three states are pushing hard for government and health department officials to allow athletes to play this spring.
The West Coast Coaching Alliance organized in November, and represents California, Oregon, and Washington.
The group has been using social media to push its fight, with many football players posting videos to sites such as Instagram and Twitter this week.
Players were instructed to “thoughtfully consider the positive benefits of permitting students to participate in educationally based athletics activities,” use a positive tone, and avoid political messaging.
Unlike other protestors, the Alliance is not calling for education-based sports to immediately begin.
But the coaches want to see each state hold to its schedule for bringing back competition.
In Washington state, the current plan calls for traditional winter sports such as basketball to run from February 1 to March 20.
After that, fall sports would go March 15-May 1, with football beginning practices March 8.
Spring sports would cap a reduced 2020-2021 school athletic year, running from April 26 to June 12.
Each season would be seven weeks in length, with regional championship events likely replacing state tournaments.
However, with COVID cases and deaths spiking throughout the state, one of two things would have to happen for high school sports to start-up Feb. 1 in Washington.
Either case rates will have to rapidly fall over the next month-plus, or state officials will have to re-do (and loosen) current guidelines.
Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Executive Director Mick Hoffman pushed for the latter in an op-ed piece — “They’re running out of time to make memories” | Coupeville Sports.
That’s a position favored by the Coaching Alliance, as well.
While acknowledging the reality of the pandemic, it points to other states which have played high school sports — some more successfully than others — as offering a road map the Western states could follow.
Their statement:
West Coast Coaching Alliance Statement (calcoachesassociation.net)
In the meantime, the social media campaign will continue, with coaches and advisors posting videos this Saturday, Dec. 12, followed by family, friends, and neighbors of high school athletes Dec. 19.
An example of the athlete videos:
