New COVID-19 cases curb La Conner High off-season workouts

The sun has set on La Conner High summer conditioning sessions.

La Conner coaches have pulled the plug on the optional off-season workouts as a public health and safety response to recent spikes in confirmed local COVID-19 cases.

“We had a few unrelated cases in the Swinomish community, so we decided to postpone it,” new head football coach Jeff Scoma said of the outdoor training.

Scoma told the Weekly News that more than 20 players were regularly taking part in his workouts, which focused on running, agility drills and tire-flipping.

“We had solid numbers,” he said.

But rising COVID-19 numbers were the ones most on the minds of La Conner coaches and district athletics director Kathy Herrera last week.

“This,” Scoma emphasized, “is life as we know it right now.”

Thus, the decision to halt the summer program.

Like Scoma, Novak and head volleyball coach Suzanne Marble had also led conditioning workouts at Whittaker Field. Those sessions were not sport specific, they stressed.

Lady Braves head basketball coach Scott Novak explained they are erring on the side of caution.

Due to the coronavirus, the entire high school sports calendar has been revamped for the 2020-21 academic year. Football and volleyball have been shifted to the spring and basketball tips off with practices starting after Christmas.

The changes, all of which remain tentative because of the fluid nature of COVID-19, reflect a four-season format announced last month by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association executive board.

The so-called “mini-seasons” will be about 70 per cent the length of a standard fall, winter and spring sports year.

The La Conner volleyball team will be looking to defend its 2018 and 2019 state titles. If Marble and the Lady Braves are to complete a rare three-peat, it will be in 2021 rather than this November.

COVID-19 has also impacted off-season schedules. The WIAA has established off-season practice windows for sports not scheduled in Season 1, set for Sept. 7-Nov. 1.

Cross country, slow-pitch softball, golf and tennis – each has been designated low-risk for virus transmission – are assigned to Season 1 but can be moved to later in the year should pandemic conditions persist.

Under the timeline rolled out by WIAA, football will be allowed 20 days of contact practices in the fall, half of those in pads.

Scoma looks forward to the opportunity.

“We can resume in September,” he noted, “per the WIAA.”