With the OSAA’s decision to postpone high school sports this fall, what’s next for Salem-Keizer’s coaches and players?

The OSAA left it up to the individual districts for how they want to handle workouts on campuses throughout the fall, and Salem-Keizer Public Schools came up with a preliminary plan on Thursday.

The plans calls for no workouts in September to allow athletes and coaches time to focus on the start of the school year and academics.

After that break, players in spring sports will have about three or four weeks to work out on campuses, followed by fall sports for three or four weeks, and then winter sports for three to four weeks as they head into their season.

Conservative approach

The first official date on the new OSAA calendar is Dec. 28, when basketball, wrestling and swimming can begin practices for the winter season.

“We’re going to be pretty conservative in the things that we do (in the fall),” McNary athletic director Scott Gragg said. “Our workouts will look similar to our summer workouts — minimal numbers, with cleaning protocols, distancing protocols, with certain groups of people.”

In the new calendar, winter sports will compete in January and February, followed by fall sports in March and April, then spring sports in May and June.

Athletic directors and coaches in Salem-Keizer applauded the OSAA’s decision to not stack sports from different seasons, so athletes wouldn’t have to choose between sports.

“What I like the most is that we’ve preserved the opportunity to have three-sport athletes to play all three sports,” West Salem athletic director Bill Wittman said. “We didn’t take three seasons and squeeze them into two and force kids to make choices.”

North Salem cross country coach Michael Herrmann agreed.

“I really think the OSAA did a great job,” Herrmann said. “Given the situation, to come up with a way to have everybody still have an opportunity I think is great.”

Will best players skip football season?

The football season will start in March, after both the early signing day (Dec. 16) and regular signing day (Feb. 3).

That means players who are already committed to college could opt out of their senior season in football. In fact, Lebanon’s Keith Brown, a four-star linebacker who’s the state’s top-rated player and an Oregon commit, has already said he won’t play his senior season.

“Teams that have kids going to BCS schools, that would definitely be a concern. But I think in the environment we’re in, everybody is learning how to adapt minute to minute,” West Salem football coach Shawn Stanley said. “Our approach will be whoever is there, we’re going to coach them up the best we can and go play.”

West Salem senior quarterback Jackson Lowery, who also plays basketball, said he hasn’t fully made up his mind yet, but he hopes to play multiple sports this school year.

“I haven’t thought much about it yet, but right now I plan on playing football and basketball,” Lowery said. “I had been preparing that they would move football to the spring, so this is something I saw coming. It is what it is, and we’re going to make the best of it.”

Cross country, track now back-to-back

Another possible significant change is that the cross country and track and field seasons are now back-to-back, with cross country in March and April, and track in May and June. In normal circumstances, the entire winter season separates the two sports.

Herrmann said he doesn’t see that as a problem.

“I actually think it’s pretty exciting to have them back to back,” he said. “I think it’s an advantage for the distance runners because you’re coming off the cross country season where you’re training at the longer distances, and you’re going to have this large training base under you to move right into the shorter, faster distances.”

Sprague senior volleyball player Lily Albrecht said she and her teammates are bummed about not playing this fall, but they are excited that they will get a season.

“I’m really glad that we’re actually having a season. It’s kind of a bummer, but it was expected,” she said. “I think every player is so ready for the season to start.”

Sprague volleyball coach Anne Olsen said she has heard that the club volleyball teams will work around the new high school schedule in March and April.

“The message I’ve heard from clubs in the area is they will either take a break, or they’ll do whatever they need to do to work around the high school schedule,” Olsen said. “I am pretty confident that I’ll have girls for the season and not have to worry too much about them having to choose between club and high school.”

Gragg said the biggest thing for the schools and everybody involved during the fall is to get the COVID-19 metrics to a point where school can open up.

“The fall for us is defeating COVID. That’s got to be our game plan,” he said. “If we can get our metrics in Marion and Polk counties to the right spot, and if we can get kids back in school, then that only increases our likelihood of being able to have sports.”

Pete Martini covers high school and college sports for the Statesman Journal. You can contact Pete at pmartini@StatesmanJournal.com, 503-399-6730 and follow @PeteMartiniSJ