When high school sports contests return Thursday, athletes like Coupeville’s Ryanne Knoblich will be wearing masks, along with coaches, fans, and refs. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
It’s up to you.
And me.
And all of us.
In less than 24 hours, the grand experiment starts up in Coupeville, just as it has started in other cities across Washington state.
High school athletic contests, pitting the Wolves against other schools, return for the first time in a year-plus, even as we continue to wade through an active pandemic.
For a lot of people, it is the light at the end of the tunnel — something to inspire and invigorate students, something to give them hope again.
For others, it is a foolhardy decision.
I’m not here to debate politics with you, to argue over charts and “experts,” and which “experts” you each personally choose to believe or discount.
That’s between you and your family, but mainly you and yourself.
What I am here to do is to try and amplify a point raised Wednesday by Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Executive Director Mick Hoffman.
And that point, that plea is this — if you want high school sports to remain active, and expand further, there is no debate for athletes, coaches, refs, or fans.
WEAR YOUR MASK!!
You can like it, you can hate it, you can agree with it, you can scorn those in Governor Jay Inslee’s office who have mandated masks for everyone involved in prep sports.
Cause your personal beliefs don’t matter at this moment.
Wear your mask, or this will all go away as quickly as it returns.
That is a stone cold fact.
This is not me saying so.
This is not Hoffman saying so.
This is the people who actually decide the fate of athletics in our state saying so, in very precise words.
“If people don’t wear masks, there will be consequences, trust me,” is what Hoffman reported state officials saying.
It’s simple.
Inslee’s people, the State Department of Health, and news outlets have been bombarded in the last few days with photos of athletes, coaches, and fans not wearing masks, or trying to pull a fast one by having their mask out of place.
There are those who do not want high school athletics to be played right now, and they are out there, ready to capture photographic proof to back their belief that people won’t act responsibly.
They are coming hard, and Hoffman is pleading with everyone who wants prep sports to remain active, from athletic directors down to parents, to come equally as hard.
“(If it continues), they’re gonna shut us down, and it’s not just the schools that are being reported. It’s all of us,” he said during Wednesday’s WIAA broadcast.
Coupeville track and field returns to action Thursday at home, hosting a five-team meet which will be restricted to athletes, timers, and officials.
Wolf baseball and softball play at home Saturday, with girls tennis hitting the CHS courts Monday.
All three of those latter events are open to fans who adhere to two requests — wear masks and socially distance.
The same goes for athletes, coaches, umps, and refs.
After a year of bitching and complaining, of justifiably being sad and scared, of not knowing if, or when, any semblance of normalcy would return, we are being handed a chance.
And all we have to do is follow one simple request.
The choice is yours, it is mine, it is all of ours.
We can rise above our differences, and work together, or we can splinter off into a million different directions, and kill something good before it gets a chance to thrive.
I’m not asking you to change your mind, to believe in something if you don’t want to, or to accept one person as the final and total authority on infectious diseases and how they’re spread.
You are an independent person in a country where you’re born with the right to hold your own beliefs. So be it.
But frankly, wearing a mask for two hours at a game so your kid, who is also wearing a mask, gets to play softball again, and not be stuck in their bedroom 24/7, doesn’t seem like much to ask.
We’re all going to make our own decision, in the end.
As someone who makes 37 cents an hour (if I’m lucky) writing about sports, I hope that our town embraces what we’re being offered, and makes a small sacrifice.
Coupeville can be part of the argument in favor of sports returning, or it can be part of the argument against.
If you choose the former, thank you.
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