If you’ve been following the stories surrounding the Bellevue High School football program recently, it’s enough to make you wonder about the future of high school sports in this state, or any state.
Here you have a group of adults who have lost all perspective about the core values of sportsmanship and fair play that they are willing to abuse any loophole in the WIAA rulebook — or potentially outright violate the rules — to feed their no-price-is-too-high-for-victory obsession.
And the worst part of it all is that it feels like this story will get more and more ugly before it’s all over.
It makes you begin to consider if we wouldn’t be better off to scrap high school sports altogether and turn everything over to club sports and intramurals.
But then something happens like the event that unfolded at Wednesday’s Camas-Columbia River track and field meet to remind you that high school sports are not all about winning.
They are about memories.
They are about community.
They are about character.
And it took 16 teenagers to help remind us all of this.
In their final regular-season meet of the season, the members of the Columbia River girls track and field team wanted to celebrate Ellen Hardy, an inspirational teammate and special education student, by having Hardy run the final leg of their 400-meter relay team.
River coach Michelle Buss let Camas coach Alisa Wise know about the Chieftains’ plan, and Wise loved it.
But what Wise didn’t know the plan the members of her own team came up with to make the event that much more special.
The race began as normal, Tiarra Ringold took off on the first leg, passed off to Sophie Landers, who passed to Allison Frank. As Frank approached the final 100 meters, she stopped to hand the baton to Hardy, then the two runners raced down the final straightaway to the cheers of the crowd.
Meanwhile, the three teams Camas had in the race — one varsity and two JV teams — ran the first 300 meters as any other race. But down the final stretch, all three Papermakers on the anchor leg slowed down to ensure Hardy crossed the finish line first, all to the surprise of their coach.
“These kids (did) this on their own,” Wise said. “These are the kind of student-athletes we have the privilege to work with every day and our school is filled with them. I’m humbled and motivated by them every single day.”
The Camas teams were comprised of Emily Karkanen, Alexa Dietz, Aliya Ponder, Karsyn Quade, Nkem Aduka, Maggie Wells, Morgan Kielty, Ahmika Kluka, Gracen O’Dell, Riley Truitt, Valentina Maggi and Hailey Eastep.
While Hardy crossed the finish line first, this race had 16 winners. And many, many others were treated to a very special moment.
Columbia River athlete Reilly Watts tweeted about race: “Definitely the most memorable race in all 4 years I’ve ran at River. Thank you Ellen for being my inspiration.”
The Columbian posted a video of the race on its 360preps Facebook page around noon on Thursday, and by 9 p.m. Thursday the post had more than 265 likes and more than 5,500 views.
Kathy Hardy, Ellen’s mother, commented that Ellen “was so proud to run with her team. Thanks to her amazing teammates at (Columbia River) and the runners from Camas.”
Indeed, thanks to the students on the Camas and Columbia River girls track and field teams for teaching us all a lesson about what high school sports are supposed to be about.
As Wise said: “Two schools, in competition, setting aside winning for the memory of a lifetime for this sweet gal.”
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at (360) 735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
