No matter what happens the rest of this weekend in high school, college and professional sports, the sports moment of the weekend, and maybe the year, happened Friday without a game taking place.
Bravo, Oak Harbor football, for giving us something to smile about on such a tragic day.
The Wildcats were scheduled to host Marysville Pilchuck on Friday night in a game that would have decided the Wesco 3A North Division title. Instead, a tragedy that in the past we would have called unimaginable, but which we now have heard about far too often, occurred at Marysville Pilchuck — another school shooting, this one in our own backyard. Marysville suddenly became not just a town in Snohomish County, but another name on a list that has grown way too long in recent years.
Two young people were dead, four more critically injured. This was not a day for football. Of course games were canceled; it would be obscene to ask kids to play sports on a day their friends and classmates had died or been wounded, and on a night when their campus was still a crime scene.
But while sports took an appropriate back seat on Friday, the reality of upcoming postseason for fall sports also means games need to be rescheduled; league titles and playoff seeding decided.
Which brings us back to Oak Harbor and one of the most touching acts of sportsmanship you, I or anyone else has likely ever witnessed. Rather than figure out when they could reschedule a league-title deciding game against a grieving Marysville Pilchuck squad, Oak Harbor’s coaches and players came up with another solution.
Forfeit.
Yes, rather than play for a championship, as well as the improved playoff seeding that would come with it, the Wildcats offered to not make up the game, conceding the title to the Tomahawks in the process.
“There’s a lot of stuff riding on this game, but there are a lot bigger things than a football game right now,” Oak Harbor football coach Jay Turner said. “I can’t imagine what the Marysville community is going through right now. They don’t need to be worried about trying to fit in a game in the days after a tragedy like this. They’ve got much bigger things to worry about right now.”
Bravo, Oak Harbor football, bravo.
In moments of tragedy like this, it’s easy to say that sports don’t matter, or that they’re just trivial games with no real-world value, but this gesture shows how sports can bring out the very best in us. This tragedy in Marysville will bring up important debates, and maybe, just maybe, some actual action for once. We’ll argue about gun control, about doing more to combat mental health issues and to curb bullying in schools, all very important discussions, but thanks to the Wildcats and football, we’ll also remember the power of one community rallying to support another.
The Wildcats would have been within their rights to tell Marysville Pilchuck to take a couple of days to heal, then figure out a way to make up the game early next week. After all, those kids at Oak Harbor worked all season for a chance at the title they are one win away from securing. But instead, Turner, a 1990 graduate of Marysville Pilchuck, talked with his players and his coaching staff, then reached out to Marysville Pilchuck coach Brandon Carson with an unbelievably selfless offer.
The Tomahawks could still decide they want to make up the game in the next couple days, but if players and coaches need time to heal, the Wildcats won’t make them pay for taking it. On top of all of that, when the Tomahawks got together for a team meeting Friday night, several Oak Harbor players made the trip to Marysville to show their support.
“We just talked about it, and we just all at once basically said it’s not a good deal for Marysville to have to play right now, so let’s at least offer that they take the No. 1 spot and we’ll take No. 2,” Turner said. “We’ve left the door open. I just talked to Coach Carson a little bit ago, and it’s whatever they are comfortable doing. I can’t put myself in their shoes. I told him, ‘The No. 1 seed is yours. If you want to play a game, that’s fine, if you don’t, that’s fine. Whatever is the best for your kids and your community, we’re OK with that.’”
Sports take a back seat to real life in times of tragedy, but they’re often an important part of the healing process. Rarely, however, can sports do something so powerful so soon after something so awful.
“These coaches in this conference are so impressive,” Kamiak coach Dan Mack said. “Jay Turner is an impressive man, Coach Carson, they are great people. To reach out like that in terms of sportsmanship, it’s beautiful. It’s absolutely beautiful.”
Something absolutely beautiful on such an ugly, tragic day. Bravo, Oak Harbor football, bravo.
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