Montana High School Association pushes back winter sports season

By AMY QUINLIVAN

Mineral Independent

On Oct. 13, the Montana High School Association Executive Board announced the decision to delay the start of winter sports practices until Dec. 7 in an effort to curtail increasing COVID-19 cases around the state.

Practices for sports like basketball, and wrestling, were originally planned to start on November 19, but now have been postponed three weeks. Winter contests can start on or after January 4.

This calendar change will affect all three schools in Mineral county, but for Superior High School their athletic program has always hinged on winter sports like wrestling and basketball.

In her first year as Athletic Director for Superior, Alberton native Jessica Nagy remains optimistic. She said, “Things have been going well, it is great that we have been able to get the fall season in with only some minor cancellations, none to our varsity programs.”

The intent behind the delay is to reduce the amount of travel and out of area interactions for students and families leading up to the holiday season. The end goal is to slow the spread of the coronavirus that is multiplying around western Montana. Nagy remarked, “I hope that the delay will be beneficial. I really hope that our students get the chance to participate in winter sports and if delaying it gives them that opportunity than it is a good move.”

Originally season opening games and tournaments for basketball and wrestling were slated for the first weekend in November, now they will be held the first week in January.

Nagy noted, “Tournaments will be held at the same time as originally scheduled so some games/matches will have to be taken off the schedule. For basketball this will most likely mean the loss of non-conference games.”

At this time Spring sports will not be affected by the change in the winter sport schedule. The school is still in the process of looking at what this will mean for the Junior High sports programs.

Nagy shared, “My advice to parents and families is to try and stay as positive as we can about this, we have to remember that we are trying to keep our kids safe while also trying to keep them on the floor/mats. Keep doing what the health department is asking us to do and stay home if you are sick so that we can keep participating in athletics,” she also added, “My hopes are that we will be able to begin winter sports on December 7 and have a season, that athletes will be able to compete and that we will be able to keep our kids healthy.”

As football season winds down for the Superior and Alberton Co-op this is typically when assistant coach Charlie Crabb starts switching gears and preps for his Head Wrestling Coach position to begin.

He has coached both for 21 years at Superior High School.

Crabb anticipates about 15 wrestlers to come out this winter season but he’s unsure of what the competition schedule will hold. He said, “With the delay we will miss three tournaments and some duals, the one missed will be our tournament which we host which is a bummer, it will be the first time in over 40 years that the tournament isn’t being held.”

The Bob Kinney Classic held right before winter break has become a Superior tradition that will be dearly missed this December.

“My thoughts on the delay are it makes sense to do that. I was worried, and still am, that there will be no season. The rational for the delay is to bypass two major holidays where a lot of people travel, by doing that hopefully reduces transmission amongst competing teams. And right now, the infection numbers are soaring so it is a good thing to let those numbers come down before we start our winter season,” expressed Crabb.

In regards to rescheduling the wrestling tournaments or duals Crabb is not certain. He noted, “There is a possibility that the normal tournament formats that we use won’t be able to happen due to public health concerns.

MHSA will meet again in a month and iron out the what exactly our season will look like as for as duals and tournaments are concerned.”

In the weeks between Crabb said, “In the meantime I'll continue on as I have, hopeful we get a season with no problems and I am excited about the team we will have coming up. My advice is to stay positive and be willing to roll with whatever is handed down. It’s not going to be business as usual but something is better than nothing.”

In his 14th season as Head Girls Basketball Coach at Superior Jeff Schultz is working hard to stay positive as well. He mentioned, “This year will be very different, I think a shortened year is going to have a long list of challenges that go with it and the fact that if a player is sick at all they have to stay home.” In addition to the pandemic basketball has always contended with winter cold and flu seasons, that just comes with the territory.

He said, “I think a shorter season will have pros and cons. The players can stay fresher with a shorter season but the loss of games is sad for the players.”

With basketballs tight schedule Schultz stated, “The non-conference games will be canceled and you can choose to make a few up if you would like to but it will be very crammed.”

As news of the delay is being grappled with by the student athletes in all the county schools Schultz emphasized being present. He shared, “I will focus on hopefully a long football season, family, and I’ll get to do some hunting this year. Parents and players stay patient and we can all get through this together.”