Snow Brings Flurry of Postponements and Cancellations

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SNOW DAY: Area Teams Are Canceling and Postponing Games Due to Inclement Weather as Snow Arrives Thursday

Thursday night games around Lewis and Thurston counties slowly began ticking off one by one Thursday afternoon after the arrival of snow prompted school districts to postpone or outright cancel the contests.

The snow brings yet another challenge to Washington state sports after each sport was pushed back for months before Season 1 finally opened up for most schools in Lewis and Thurston counties on Monday. Schedules are already tight with Season 1 teams having just six weeks left of competition after this week to squeeze games in.

“Cancellations are never fun,” Tenino Athletic Director Joe Chihart said. “Making a phone call and canceling events is easy, but trying to figure out how you would attempt to make those up will probably be another hiccup for us.”

The avalanche of changes began with White Pass Athletic Director Bryan DeLong announcing at noon Thursday that the Morton-White Pass and Winlock volleyball match Thursday was canceled.

By Friday afternoon, all school districts in the coverage area had canceled their Friday extracurricular activities, which included two cross country meets, one football game, one girls soccer match and one boys tennis match.

As of The Chronicle’s Friday print deadline, three of the eight football games involving teams in the coverage area had postponed their season-opening Saturday games. The games that had not been called yet as of 3:30 p.m. Friday are W.F. West at Aberdeen; Black Hills at Centralia; and Rochester at Tumwater. Check with schools before attending those events,

The cancellations and postponements come after most of the schools in Lewis and South Thurston counties moved to either remote learning or hybrid classes Thursday to counter the snow.

The decision-making process for canceling sporting events for high schools is a combination of a lot of different things. At Tenino School District, it’s a group effort, with the superintendent starting the discussion, working down to the athletic director and the bus drivers. The group works together to decide what is safe for the kids.

“When weather is an issue, it becomes, ‘is it safe or unsafe?’” Chirhart said. “The concern is traveling out of town, an hour and a half drive. It’s too hard to guesstimate what road conditions look like. At the end of the day, everybody’s looking to err on the side of caution and better safe than sorry.”



Rescheduled events

• Tenino at Montesano football at either 2 or 3 p.m. Monday.

• Ocosta at Morton-White Pass football at noon, Monday, at Stewart Field in Aberdeen. No fans allowed. Game will be livestreamed on the NFHS Network.

• Toledo at Rainier football at 3 p.m. Monday.

• Mossyrock at Naselle football at 5 p.m. Monday.

• Naselle at Mossyrock volleyball at 7 p.m. March 1.

• Pe Ell-Willapa Valley at Adna football at 7 p.m. Monday.

• Onalaska vs. Napavine football at 7 p.m., Monday, at Tiger Stadium in Centralia.

• Taholah at Winlock football at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday.