CPHS Athletics Update- WIAA Modifies Seasons

CPHS Families,

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New information regarding a return to sports and seasons modifications were published last night by the WIAA Executive Board. I want to highlight and clarify a few important points regarding these updates.

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1. Leagues have been granted the ability by the WIAA to determine how season schedules can be modified to best fit the needs of the region and communities. Each league and region around the state have different factors to consider as they make decisions to follow the WIAA modifications or make their own. This new WIAA season format may or may not apply to CPPS programs, that is yet to be determined and league meetings are happening in the coming days to make those decisions.

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2. The WIAA has published incomplete plans for all seasons and sports at this time. Only Season 1, which is now the traditional fall sports of cross country, football, volleyball and girls soccer for us have been determined. The WIAA will make decisions about where to place Season 2 and 3 (traditional winter and spring sports seasons) at their Jan. 19 board meeting and send out that information. 

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3. The guidelines for these sports are incomplete, and do not yet include the new regulations from the Governor's Healthy Washington Recovery Plan. Those new WIAA specific guidelines should be published soon and will hopefully clarify some regulations like use of masks during competition, indoor/outdoor sport opportunities, new rules, etc. 

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4. High risk indoor sports of basketball and wrestling are not addressed in the Governor's new phased plan. Only outdoor high, moderate, and low risk sports are addressed in phase 1 and 2. This makes some of these decisions much more difficult at this time.

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Be on the lookout for more information about athletics coming out ASAP.

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Link to the full press release from the WIAA regarding this matter, or see below.

WIAA Executive Board Revises Season 1 Sports in Response to State 

Guidelines RENTON, Wash. (Jan. 6, 2021) – The WIAA Executive Board voted to amend its season schedule on Wednesday, moving traditional fall sports to WIAA Season 1 while choosing to review Seasons 2 and 3 at its Jan. 19 meeting.WIAA Season 1 will span seven weeks in length, beginning with pre-competition practices on Feb. 1 and ending on March 20. The sports scheduled for that season include cross country, football, golf (alternate), slowpitch softball, girls and 1B/2B boys soccer, tennis (alternate) and volleyball. The change comes after Gov. Jay Inslee announced on Tuesday the “Healthy Washington — Roadmap to Recovery” plan which outlined a new set of guidelines and metrics for the resumption of education-based athletics and activities in Washington. Sports will maintain their previously assigned risk levels; however, the level of participation for each activity will vary in Phase 1 or Phase 2.  “The change in guidelines allow all traditional fall sports to be played in Phase 2 while we still do not have a clear pathway to the high risk indoor activities of basketball, competitive cheer and dance, and wrestling” said WIAA Executive Director Mick Hoffman. “With that in mind, moving fall sports to Season 1 will hopefully provide the most opportunities to participate.” While the Executive Board will provide a uniform season schedule concluding in regional culminating events, it has granted each WIAA league or district around the state the ability to reschedule seasons to best fit their local communities. WIAA staff will continue to work with the Department of Health to gain more clarity surrounding the guidelines that were issued on Jan. 5. “We are hoping to receive more details that were not included in the Governor’s announcement on Tuesday, particularly surrounding indoor sports and activities,” Hoffman said. “As we continue to gather more information and evaluate the new metrics, the Board will be able to make better decisions about the remainder of the year.” In addition to changing the sports scheduled for WIAA Season 1, the Board voted to extend the open coaching period at each school up until the day before the first season begins at that school.  

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