Coupeville Sports

If games are played this school year, Coupeville and Chimacum will not meet on the gridiron as originally planned. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

One less rival.

If games are played this school year, Chimacum will not join Coupeville in the Northwest 2B/1B League.

Instead, the Cowboys plan to unite with next-door neighbor Port Townsend, and the two schools will remain in the 1A/2A Olympic League, perhaps playing as “East Jefferson County.”

That’s according to a report Friday by The Peninsula Daily News.

When the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association conducted reclassification counts, Chimacum, like Coupeville, dropped from 1A to 2B.

The two schools were approved to join fellow 2B schools La Conner and Friday Harbor in the NWL, a league which also includes 1B schools Orcas Island, Mount Vernon Christian, Darrington, and Concrete.

Port Townsend was to join the 1A Nisqually League

But then COVID-19 threw everything all higgedly-piggedly.

Washington state schools haven’t competed in nearly a year thanks to the pandemic, and both the Chimacum and Port Townsend school districts have seen reduced enrollments.

The WIAA is currently proposing a plan in which fall sports would be played first, followed by spring sports, before winter sports cap the 2020-2021 school year.

The athletic governing body is allowing leagues to break free of that plan, however, and the NWL has applied to play spring-fall-winter.

Port Townsend and Chimacum, which already unite to field cooperative teams for cross country, girls swim, tennis, and wrestling, will add football and volleyball to that list.

They had already planned to also unite for girls soccer, and have been trying to resurrect a combined softball program.

Even with two schools, “East Jefferson County” sits at just 437 students, according to Port Townsend Athletic Director Patrick Gaffney.

That number keeps the combined program under the 1A cutoff, and it would actually have less students than Klahowya, the only other 1A school left in the Olympic League.

That conference, where Coupeville played from 2014-2018, includes seven 2A schools, headlined by North Kitsap and Sequim.

Post-pandemic, there are many options available.

Port Townsend and Chimacum could further unite, combining programs for all sports.

They could stay as is, with both schools having their own programs for sports such as basketball, boys soccer, golf, and track.

Or they could totally split apart, likely bringing Chimacum back to the NWL.

Like everything else in the Age of Coronavirus, nobody knows nothing for sure right now.

“If the two schools want to provide a broad range of sports, this might be the direction we have to look at,” Gaffney was quoted in the Daily News.

“If we don’t go that direction and Chimacum is a 2B and PT is 1A, you may have to cut sports offerings, and I think both communities don’t want to see that.

“To be able to offer swimming and tennis and other sports that some small schools don’t provide is good for our athletes.”

Like all AD’s in a frustrating time, Gaffney and Chimacum’s Carrie Beebe will try to balance what’s best for all involved.

“At some point this year, we will have an idea of how it is going, any issues that arise or don’t arise, and I think those will be minimal,” Gaffney said in the Daily News article.

“We are all trying to do what’s best for kids, PT and Chimacum, and when you frame it that way, it’s hard to come up with an argument against doing this.”

For the complete Daily News article, pop over to:

PREP SPORTS: Jefferson County high school rivals set for merger | Peninsula Daily News

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