Tri-Cities high school athletes will have to wait a bit longer for fall season starts

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s executive board announced this week that the start of the fall athletics season will be pushed back.

For football, that means practices now won’t begin until Sept. 5, while all other sports are to start Sept. 7.

Originally, prep football practices were scheduled to begin Aug. 19, with players needing 12 practices to be able to play in contests.

The other fall sports — boys and girls cross country, girls soccer, girls swimming and diving, and volleyball — were set to start with practices Aug. 24. Athletes in those sports need 10 practices before they can play in contests.

The board says it will continue to work with staff, member schools and state agencies to monitor the impact of COVID-19.

The board said its next statement concerning the start of fall sports will be July 22 following its next scheduled meeting.

But right now, what does that mean for local sports here?

It means the region’s athletic directors will have to redo their league schedules.

The first two weeks of football games this fall are probably gone, said Richland High athletic director Mike Edwards. There is nowhere on the calendar to reschedule those games.

“The same with soccer and volleyball,” Edwards said. “We’re going to have to modify the schedules for all of those sports.”

Edwards said that even trying to schedule a full season for girls soccer and volleyball would be tough.

“When we have had teams in those sports play three games a week, there have been complaints of it being too much,” Edwards said. “And in soccer, a number of the players have club soccer practice on Sundays.”

Edwards said it looks like instead of a 12-14 Mid-Columbia Conference game schedule for those sports it could just be a schedule where a team would play other MCC teams just once.

John Cazier, Chiawana High School’s athletic director, thinks pushing things back could be an option.

“I guess I don’t know why everything couldn’t be pushed back a few weeks,” Cazier said. “We could start winter sports later. Start spring sports later.”

That would put the state football championships into mid-December.

But he could also see another option where maybe two schools don’t meet each other in a sport such as football

Edwards cautions that athletic directors are having to react to decisions that are being made higher up the chain.

“I think we’re all still learning about (coronavirus),” he said. “We’re adjusting on the fly like everyone else. For instance, how many people can you have in a restaurant? Right now, we’re all planning, if we ever get to Phase 2, what we can do with the guidelines (in the phase).”

There are so many different scenarios right now.

For instance, if nothing was ever done as far as reacting to the coronavirus (and hopefully with some kind of vaccine available), one scenario could have a condensed sports season of winter sports in January/February, fall sports in March/April, and spring sports in May/June.

That might be extreme, but Cazier says the athletic directors would take it if they had to.

“That is certainly better than to cancel fall sports,” Cazier said. “We don’t want to cancel sports like we did in the spring.”

He said he gets his coaches asking him questions every day, asking him what does he think will happen.

“I’m giving them the same answer I gave them all back in March when this started,” Cazier said. “The challenging part is there has been no direction (from the WIAA). We’re at the discretion of those above us (at the WIAA). I’m just itching to see the kids back out at practice and in competition.”

Cazier said the MCC athletic directors could meet and put together a revised schedule for fall sports.

But, he says, that would be a pointless exercise because things could change when the WIAA Executive Board meets in two weeks.

Then, athletic directors will get together and figure out a plan.

“It’s all doable,” Cazier said. “When we all get together, there are a lot of smart people in that room.”

CBC women’s basketball

Columbia Basin College’s head women’s basketball coach, Roosevelt Smith, has done a great job refilling his team’s roster this off-season.

Smith got standouts such as Chiawana’s Alyssa Agundis, Kennewick’s Aislin Fiander and Prosser’s Madison Golden to sign letters of intent.

Agundis was the Mid-Columbia Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year in her sophomore and junior seasons.

“It’s one of the No. 1 things I like about her,” Smith said.

Smith said he worked on getting Fiander to sign for a while. She’s a pretty good 3-point shooter, but Smith wants more.

“I want to get her to run,” he said. “I need a better tempo for this team.”

Golden is a big find.

As a junior at Prosser, she was a major reason the Mustangs played so well. Her main contributions were secondary scoring, rebounding and inside defense.

“Just before her senior year, her mother moved to Puyallup,” Smith said. “But Golden decided not to play there.”

So Golden came in under the radar for most schools. But Smith knew what she could do.

“We’ve got a player who can take on the 3 (small forward) or 4 (power forward) role for us.”

Smith also is hoping incoming freshman Riley DeSautel of Inchelium — recruited to play softball at CBC — can also play basketball for his Hawks. She averaged around 15 points a game for Class 1B Inchelium.

Now, throw in River View grad Aaliyah Anderson, who can score. Anderson spent her freshman season with Walla Walla University. Smith gets her as a sophomore.

They all will help Southridge grad Sami Sanders, who was the Hawks’ second-leading scorer last season and comes back for her sophomore season.

Smith seems to have a solid nucleus for the coming season.

Now, he’d just like to get them all together soon. That may not happen for a while, with the coronavirus still going strong.

“Our workout stuff for the summer is coming out soon for the players,” said Smith.

Notes

• Richland High grad Leon Rice earned his first-ever hole-in-one on June 23 at the 111-yard No. 8 hole at Hillcrest Country Club in Boise.

Rice is the head men’s basketball coach at Boise State University.

• Here’s a few local aces from Pasco Golfland: starting with Pasco’s Melody Otness, who had her fourth career hole-in-one on May 15, using a 6-hybrid on the 135-yard No. 1 hole.

Then Pasco’s Boyd Kostoff garnered his fourth career ace on June 22, on the 79-yard No. 4 hole. Kostoff used a 52-degree wedge.

Finally, Kennewick’s Billy McIntyre, who owns Golfland, recorded his 11th – that’s right, 11th – career ace on June 23 on the 119-yard No. 5. McIntyre used a Ping 7-iron for the feat.

This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 6:21 PM.