School Closures Stop Practices, Endanger Eligibility

Coaches and athletes at Valley high schools were left skating on thin ice because of last Tuesday’s storm.

With schools closed, practices also were halted.

The state requires a minimum number of practices athletes must complete to be eligible. Coaches have been forced to become resourceful or be resigned to their fate.

“It’s not the end of the world,” said new Central Valley basketball coach Rick Sloan. “My philosophy is you worry about what you can control. I can’t control this.”

For Sloan, who is installing a new program, the dilemma was particularly trying.

He interrupted a reporter to take another call.

“That was (assistant coach) Mike Laws,” he said, once back on the line. “Everybody is trying to figure out what we’re doing.”

There was a chance, he said, that after having just one practice, last Monday, players would be back in the gym today.

At West Valley, girls basketball coach Mark Kuipers had one practice on Monday and was hoping to be back in the gym Friday.

“Right now we’re just taking it day-by-day,” said West Valley girls basketball coach Mark Kuipers. “As long as the playing field is level (and other schools aren’t practicing), it’s OK.”

Basketball players need 10 practices and he figured they’d get six in before the Dec. 2 All-Valley Jamboree.

Schools can appeal to Washington Interscholastic Activities Association to relax the 10-practice requirement.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Kuipers.

University wrestling coach Don Owen was able to make do.

“We had a practice in the dark yesterday,” he said on Thursday. “We opened the doors in the back part of the room to let in light. Only a third of the kids were there, though.”

The team planned to practice Thursday at Horizon Junior High.

Through it all, Owen kept his sense of humor.

“We played Blind Man’s Bluff, most of practice, rolled around a bit and called it a day,” he said. “Man, was it cold. The mats were like hitting hardwood. The kids got a taste of outdoor wrestling.”

The first matches for wrestlers, who need 12 practices, is the Dec. 5 Valley double-dual.

“I don’t know if the state will give us a variance or not,” said Owen. “I hope they will.”

Kuipers, who lives in the Vera Power district, which has many of its lines underground, had power at his home.

Owen, who lives at Bowdish and 23rd, was shivering without heat or electricity as of Thursday.

Sloan, who lives at Newman Lake, hooked home up to an emergency generator, giving him heat and lights.

“It’s piping hot out here,” he said.

He even had his television hooked up and watched a movie Wednesday night.

“I’m just trying to be resourceful,” he said. “That’s in my control.”

, DataTimes