The clock is ticking for the Wesco Athletics after most local high school sports scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday were canceled due to inclement weather. With Wesco 3A crossover basketball games needing to be rescheduled and the district tournaments for winter sports starting as soon as this weekend and into next week, these cancellations can cause a real strain for athletic departments around the region.
It’s one thing to remove just one day out of the athletic calendar due to weather, but if multiple cancellations stack up, people like Don Dalziel, Wesco President and Shoreline Public Schools Athletic Director will be the ones “putting out fires.” Dalziel and other athletic directors work with superintendents and district leaders and to come to these decisions.
“I use this phrase frequently when we have inclement weather: ‘We have to play when we can, not necessarily when we want,’” Dalziel said. “Everybody’s silo has a different lens on what’s best for their team or their school or their program, but when we have timelines that we have to meet before state tournaments begin, we don’t want to push things out too far so that we have our backs against the wall.”
Officials take every decision on a day-by-day basis. Rather than blocking out an entire weekend because the forecast predicts bad weather over the course of multiple days, Dalziel and the rest of the athletic directors will wait to see if each individual day is viable, which avoids prematurely canceling on a day that turns out to be clear.
Once Wednesday’s contests were postponed, rescheduling started immediately, but if weather continues to impact the ability to play in the following days, the group has to go back to the drawing board.
If all the district games are fit in before the state tournament, all that means is that teams advancing will have a little less time to prepare. In the worst-case scenario in which time runs out before all the games can be played, Dalziel & Co. will be forced to get creative.
“All those scenarios are based off of worst-case situations, and most of the time we never get there,” Dalziel said. “We may have to get permission to play two games in a day, or something like that, in order to get some resolution. But I don’t anticipate that we would get to a scenario like that.”
According to Dalziel, the decision-making process is a collaborative effort between the Wesco Conference and Northwest Conference for 2A and 3A, as well as the Kingco Conference for 4A. For the rest of the postseason leading up to the state tournament, the ball is in mother nature’s court.
“I think we’re always trying to modify, accommodate the change, do whatever we can that’s in the best interest for our student-athletes and coaches,” Dalziel said. “That’s kind of where we’re at right now.”
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