Coaches, ADs Frustrated by New High School Sports Guidance From Thurston County Health Official

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High school coaches and athletic directors in Thurston County are feeling some frustration this week after the Thurston County Health Department released new guidance on in-person learning in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases. Included in that guidance were instructions on high school athletics, telling schools to revert back to practicing in "cohorts," also called pods, of six student-athletes and eliminating intra-team scrimmages and competitions.

For the past week, Thurston County high schools have held voluntary workouts for many of its sports, including football, volleyball, cross country, girls soccer and others. Governor Inslee's office, in conjunction with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, recently released updated return-to-play guidelines, tying high school sports to COVID-19 benchmarks in individual counties -- specifically, cases per 100,000 residents in each county, as well as the percentage of positive tests. The previous return-to-play guidelines were tied to phasing in the Governor's Safe Start Plan.

Thurston County has been under 75 cases per 100,000 residents, putting the county in the 'moderate-risk' category and meaning those sports have been allowed to hold normal practices. But the new guidance from the Thurston County Health Department supersedes the guidance from the governor's office and the WIAA.

"I obviously felt bad for kids again, getting yo-yo'd around," said Tumwater High School coach Bill Beattie, who led the T-Birds to the Class 2A state title in 2019. "We've changed the guidelines so many times. I felt like this last one was a good one."

Olympia High School athletic director Bob Kickner said he and many others in the local high school sports community felt blindsided by the guidance.

"We got the wind taken out of our sails," Kickner said. "They just shut us down without warning. There was no communication other than the letter."

A Thurston County Health Department spokeswoman said in an email to The News Tribune on Friday that the new guidance has the safety of the kids in mind.

"Our transmission rate, as of October 14, 2020, is 62.3 cases per 100k over 14 days and this rate continues to climb," the spokeswoman said. "Recent transmission rates show the county nearing the high transmission range. The decision was made to start a slow phased in approach to school sports starting with activities that are safe in the high transmission range to ensure the appropriate protocols are in place to keep students and staff safe."

"This approach is supported by the latest edition of the K-12 decision making framework which recommends a cautious phasing in of extracurricular activities starting with low risk activities. We need to see transmission rates and community spread of the virus decreasing, therefore guidance was issued to limit the number of student athletes gathering to practice and train."

Coaches and athletic directors have been excited to see a return to some sort of normalcy over the past week, even if social distancing, constant equipment sanitizing, mask wearing, etc. are the new normal.

"Kids play video games, they're online all the time," said Olympia football coach Nick Mullen. "Once all that personal contact got taken away, I think they started to realize how much they needed to be with their friends, see each other, be around each other. Playing Fortnite online can only go so far. It's healthy for their souls to throw the ball, play music together, be around each other."



The WIAA's initial return-to-play guidelines, which were released in June, connected the return of high school athletics to the Governor's Safe Start plan and which phase counties were in. But input from the Governor's office was a bit unclear. The more recent set of guidelines eliminated the ambiguity that athletics administrators felt existed with the previous set of guidelines, providing clear benchmarks and outlining, in plain terms, what was allowed for each county, and what wasn't. Now, with the Thurston County Health Department stepping in, it has created an added layer of confusion.

"It's frustrating," said Tumwater athletic director Tim Graham. "(WIAA executive director) Mick Hoffman and the WIAA have really worked hard to make these things happen and create equity for these kids. There's no communication, no dialogue with us. ... There was a protocol to go by. It was clear, strict, it had all those things. We felt that we were in a good place. When a single area trumps that and says, 'We're going to restrict you even more,' it's confusing."

Coaches and AD's said they haven't been given a timetable on how long the county's guidance will remain in effect, which the Thurston County Health Department confirmed to The News Tribune.

"With the governor and WIAA's document, we had a scorecard that we could follow," Kickner said. "With what the (county health department) did, it's open-ended. It came so quickly and abruptly. We have no way of knowing what we're shooting for now."

Multiple people The News Tribune spoke with in the high school athletics community in Thurston County for this story said they felt high school student-athletes are being unfairly targeted by local health officials. All of them expressed a desire for more transparent and open communication.

"I just wish all the powers-to-be that come up with all these decisions would all be on the same page," Beattie said.

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