All high school sports for Season 1 in Southwest Washington are go.
Athletes are excited. Coaches are thrilled.
Athletic directors are also happy, but extremely busy.
“I would say yes, we are in scramble mode right now,” Camas athletic director Rory Oster said.
Games will start later this week for volleyball, girls soccer and football in the 2A Greater St. Helens League and 1A Trico League. Southwest Region members of the Central 2B League, like Kalama and Stevenson, also will begin play this week.
And that leaves a lot of details for athletic directors to figure out like schedules, transportation and just how many fans can attend.
“It’s a good problem to have, but there are definitely some challenges as we navigate through all of this,” Woodland athletic director Paul Huddleston said.
Restrictions imposed by the state department of health limits total attendees at high school sporting events to 200, and that includes participants, coaches and officials.
For the bigger schools of the 4A/3A Greater St. Helens League, that presents an issue with football rosters that can exceed 50 players. That would leave only a handful of available spots for fans, and trying to figure out who gets those spots would be too difficult, Oster said.
“So until the state guidance changes, we are saying no spectators for football, at least to start,” Oster said.
Camas plans to broadcast its games on the NFHS Network, which requires a monthly subscription, as well as a free broadcast on YouTube.
“The YouTube feed won’t have announcers or graphics on the screen, but it will allow people to watch the game,” Oster said.
The smaller schools will have more room for a limited amount of spectators. Most schools are limiting spectators to family members of players only, and in some cases, just for the seniors.
“Our goal is to make it possible for every athlete to have tickets available for immediate family,” Huddleston said. “Football presents the biggest challenge. We will start with senior parents there and figure to only have 50-60 seats total available. It’s very frustrating.”
Soccer and volleyball will allow for more family spectators, but Huddleston said the exact number has not been determined yet.
He also said each school will be setting its own guidelines for spectators, and many schools are still sorting out their own guidelines.
“Each home school determines how they allocate the remaining spots,” Huddleston said. “It’s their call, and it will vary based on factors like venue size, size of teams and amount of seniors in the program.”
Hockinson, for example, will not be allowing spectators to sub-varsity events, and only the parents of Hockinson seniors at the Hawks’ home events, AD Josh Johnson said.
Huddleston said Woodland also plans to live stream all volleyball, soccer and football games at all levels for free on the Woodland Athletics YouTube channel.
Oster said Camas will allow two spectators per Camas participant for home volleyball and soccer games.
Another issue is scheduling as officials are expected to be limited this season. The 4A/3A Greater St. Helens League will begin play in volleyball, soccer and football the week of Feb. 22.
“We finish up drawing up our schedule, then we submit to the officials association and they tell us they can’t cover certain events,” Oster said. “Volleyball is particularly challenging. We were planning on playing matches on Tuesdays, but then the (2A GSHL) is playing on Tuesdays. So now, we are looking at playing volleyball on Mondays.”
Oster said there is going to be a lot of adjustments in the schedule this season.
“We might be playing some football games on Thursdays because of a limited number of officials,” he said.
The ADs are doing their best, and they ask for patience and understanding.
“I’ve really appreciated the patience and grace families have shown while we’re trying to figure all this out,” Huddleston said.
