High school games schedules laid out. Still uncertain if Tri-Cities athletes can play

The Mid-Columbia Conference laid out a master football schedule this week, depending on COVID restriction.

If Washington state announces Friday that the region can advance to Phase 2 of Washington’s Healthy Roadmap to Recovery, high school kids will have football, girls soccer and volleyball games to look forward to playing.

If that happens, the Mid-Columbia Conference’s master football schedule will be in place.

Each MCC school — except for Hermiston — will have a six-game schedule. Hermiston, because it’s based in Oregon, has not been given the clearance from Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to host any events, nor from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to travel to the Tri-Cities or Walla Walla to compete.

In addition, the Umatilla County Health Dept. informed the Hermiston School District last Friday that the Hermiston football team needed to quarantine after a small COVID-19 outbreak occurred recently.

So the rest of the MCC has had to move on, with the hopes that Hermiston will be able to join the conference for the next sports season, spring, in late March.

I haven’t been able to obtain a master girls soccer or volleyball schedule yet. We just know that if this region can get to Phase 2 on Friday, girls soccer would begin Feb. 16; and volleyball would begin Feb. 18.

Fans need to be aware that, while some districts are working on possibly allowing a small number of fans into events, there also is a chance that no one may be able to attend any events.

So this is what the MCC has for a tentative football schedule (kickoff times listed are the only ones confirmed so far; most games will be 7 p.m. starts):

▪ Week 1, Feb. 19: Hanford at Walla Walla, 7 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 20: Chiawana at Richland, 3 p.m.; Kamiakin at Kennewick, 2 p.m.; Southridge at Pasco, 2 p.m.

▪ Week 2, Feb. 25: Pasco at Hanford, 5 p.m.; Friday, Feb. 26: Kennewick at Southridge, 7 p.m.; Richland at Kamiakin, 7 p.m.; Walla Walla at Chiawana, 7 p.m.

▪ Week 3, March 5: Hanford at Kennewick, 7 p.m.; Kamiakin at Chiawana, 7 p.m.; Pasco at Walla Walla, 7 p.m.; Southridge at Richland, 7 p.m.

▪ Week 4, March 11: Richland at Hanford, 5 p.m.; Friday, March 12: Chiawana at Southridge, 7 p.m.; Kennewick at Pasco, 7 p.m.; Walla Walla at Kamiakin, 7 p.m.

▪ Week 5, March 19: Hanford at Chiawana, 7 p.m.; Kennewick at Walla Walla, 7 p.m.; Pasco at Richland, 7 p.m.; Southridge at Kamiakin, 7 p.m.

▪ Week 6, March 26: Chiawana at Pasco, 7 p.m.; Kamiakin at Hanford, 7 p.m.; Richland at Kennewick, 7 p.m.; Walla Walla at Southridge, 7 p.m.

Notes: Chiawana and Pasco play home games at Edgar Brown Stadium; Hanford and Richland play home games at Fran Rish Stadium; Kamiakin, Kennewick and Southridge play home games at Lampson Stadium; Walla Walla plays home games at Borleske Stadium.

As Richland High athletic director Mike Edwards told me, “There may a shuffle of games at Lampson.”

In other words, there could be some Thursday night games — or early Saturday contests — if two Kennewick schools are scheduled to host at Lampson the same week.

And the way the schedule looks right now, there will have to be some movement on some of those Lampson games.

More on Hermiston

The WIAA announced Tuesday that, after consulting with the governor’s office and the Washington State Department of Health, the WIAA is allowing league play for school sports that cross state borders (of which Hermiston qualifies) has been included as essential travel.

Unfortunately for the Hermiston football team, it’s just gone into quarantine, as ordered by the Umatilla County Health District on Friday.

The rest of the MCC has already scheduled fall sports — football, girls soccer and volleyball — without Hermiston.

But the MCC athletic directors were meeting Wednesday and were discussing the situation.

Hermiston athletic director Larry Usher wasn’t sure what this all means for his Bulldogs sports teams.

“Right now, we don’t know,” Usher responded in an early Wednesday morning email. “Initially, we were informed that TC schools would host us if the governor stated it was OK for us to travel. There are a lot of moving pieces to this right now and still some unanswered questions. We should know more following our league meeting today (Wednesday).”

▪ In another change, the WIAA says it will allow mask changes at cross country meets.

Runners must wear their masks at the start of a race, but can drop it down once the race is on. That’s a change from expecting runners to wear them an entire race.

That change goes for gymnasts too. Gymnasts can take their masks off when they are competing, but as soon as their event is done they must put them back on.

Zamora at Daytona

Want to watch Kennewick’s Brittney Zamora race on TV?

Then check out FS1 at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, when she races in the Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire ARCA Menards Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Zamora is getting a well-deserved chance to drive at NASCAR’s most prestigious race track, in one of the under cards for the NASCAR Cup Series.

Zamora got a chance to test on the track a few weeks ago during ARCA’s weekend testing session, where she got into some drafting sessions.

The owners of Rette Jones Racing were impressed enough by her performance that they signed her on Feb. 6 to drive their No. 30 Ford Fusion for Saturday’s race.

Mark Rette, a co-owner of the team and a past ARCA championship crew chief, will be Zamora’s crew chief for the race.

Zamora has been moving up the stock car racing ladder year by year.

After winning the Northwest Super Late Model season championships in both 2017 and 2018, she raced for Bill McAnally Racing in the ARCA West Series out of California in 2019.

Last year, she had signed with Jefferson Racing, but the pandemic mostly wiped out her season.

She did travel to Nashville in November and raced in the prestigious All-American 400, placing 11th out of 34 drivers and becoming the highest finisher ever among females.

Zamora, 21, has spent time wooing race sponsors these past few months and talking to race car owners, who are always looking for strong driving talent.

The ARCA Menards schedule for the weekend includes a one-hour practice session, from 10 a.m.-11 a.m. (Pacific time) on Friday.

The group qualifying session starts at 5:30 a.m. (Pacific) on Saturday, with the main event kicking off later that morning at 10:30 a.m.