Wrestling with the Future of Winter Sports

Amidst all of the concerns that are encircling school districts now lies an even trickier question: will students still be able to participate in sports this season? The growing concern for students' health as Omicron spreads and COVID positivity rates rise, has left both Cascade and Cashmere athletic directors in a difficult position.

"There's been lots of cancellations rescheduling and just managing to be flexible and doing everything we can to give our winter sports athletes, the opportunities to compete while following guidelines of the department of health and the WIAA," Cashmere High School Athletic Director Jeff Carlson explained.

"Everything's day to day, games are getting canceled day to day," Cascade Athletic Director Dominique Coffin explained. "You kind of don't know what the day is going to bring."

Cashmere Wrestling resumed their program on Friday, Jan. 14., having been previously on pause due to the high-risk of the contact sport. Cashmere High School Athletics Department was put on a 10-day pause, one which they were required to adhere to by local health departments.

"We're the only school in our league on pause right now. Everyone else is competing. We were supposed to have a league double dual tomorrow in Chelan that we're not gonna be competing at, but the other schools in our league will be."

All sports programs in Wash. state are required to test their athletes three times per week in order for programs to remain safe and running.

"That's for all high-risk indoor sports, which includes boys and girls basketball wrestling, and also our sideline cheer for winter sports," Carlson states. "There's grant money involved where we get the tests and there's tests that are allocated to schools in order to adhere to the guidelines from the state. There is also a shortage of these tests even for schools right now, so it's a struggle to get them."

If a school district does not have enough at-home COVID tests to test three times a week, they will be forced to put all of their athletics on pause once their supply has been restocked. Recently, the Mead school district in Spokane were forced to shut down their athletic programs after they ran out of at-home COVID tests.

"We're fine right now with the amount of tests we have, but I know that can be a challenge if you don't have those tests."

After multiple COVID outbreaks were found via wrestling tournaments and meets, many wrestling teams throughout the state have had to change their policy in order to avoid future spread.

"[Cascade] Coach Sandoval pretty much has put them in a lot of partner situations, just so if someone does become positive, then [...] If you are in close contact, vaccinated or not, we can keep testing you in order to keep you at school," Coffin explained. "That's the number one thing we want to be able to do is just keep our athletes as safe as we can. Being able to test everyone, which was required by the state, has been able to help us as well."

Coffin states that they will also reduce maximum occupancy for games and wrestling bouts, hoping to reduce exposure and confrontation.

"It's trying to eliminate confrontation, just kind of where we're at. There is new guidance on limiting spectators, so we'll be at 50% capacity as we finish out this winter season."

Both Carlson and Coffin report that they will continue to balance safety with the students' opportunity to participate in after-school activities.

We're just going to continue to move forward and just hope for the best and keep our kids safe," Coffin said. "We got a few more weeks, so we're on survival mode."