These Whatcom prep football coaches pleased with COVID-shortened season outcomes
.jpg "Fans watch from atop their cars and trucks the Lynden Lions and Lynden Christian Lyncs battle on the gridiron during their first meet in more than 30 years on Tuesday evening, March 16, at Lynden High School in Lynden,. With COVID-19 regulations limiting the number of spectators in the venue, many fans crowded the fence line to cheer their team. The Lyncs defeated the Lions 28 to 21 making them undefeated in conference games.")
Whatcom County high school players took on the extraordinary COVID-19 pandemic challenge of staying healthy and disciplined enough to play six football games in a short time span in 2021.
In the span of 29 days — after opening practice 19 days earlier — Ferndale (5-1), Mount Baker (5-1), Lynden (4-2) and Nooksack Valley (2-4) all played six games. Normally, that would have taken at least 40 days.
Playing five games each were Lynden Christian (at 5-0 the county’s only unbeaten team), Squalicum (4-1), Sehome (3-2) and Bellingham (3-2).
As Mount Baker coach Ron Lepper said, “It was a total grind, but it was totally worth it.” None of the other coaches disagreed in a post-season assessment.
In all, 35 games were played by the county’s Northwest Conference teams, with only Blaine (1-3, with one game not played) and Meridian (1-1 with three games not played) had the bad pandemic luck to miss out on full schedules.
The number of talented offensive performers was so remarkable that the 33 county winners — Whatcom County was 18-2 against out-of-county teams — scored 1,230 points, or an average of 37 per winning effort.
If that wasn’t an all-time high for points, it was close.
In most games, the offenses seemed ahead of the defenses, perhaps because all but one weight room was closed for nearly a year until most public schools partially opened Feb. 1 on a hybrid basis.
Lynden Christian, the only private school in the Northwest Conference, has been open the entire school year, but even the Lyncs faced training challenges.
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“We wore masks and socially distanced and we could have only four players working out in our weight room at a time,” LC coach Dan Kaemingk said. “It wasn’t even close to what we usually do. But we were so grateful that all of our juniors from 2019 came back as seniors. They really were a band of brothers playing for each other.”
During one pre-game interview, Kaemingk had to ask for a call back because he had to take on the daily task of checking the health of each player each day.
Throughout the league, players had their temperatures taken daily. The kids were also asked several questions about possible COVID-19 symptoms.
“I’m real proud of our kids, playing five uninterrupted games,” said Squalicum coach Nick Lucey. “Our five new starting linemen did a heck of a job. We talked with the kids about reducing the number of people they spent time around, about being smart about who you were around. Credit to them — they bought into it.”
Ferndale coach Jamie Plenkovich said, “It was great fun to play six games.”
A normal season is 10 games and playoffs, which were not held this year.
“I would say we were hopeful at the start (of the unique winter season),” the veteran coach said. “I had no idea how things would work out. Everyone had to be disciplined, always reminding each other about masks and distancing.
“We had a very detailed practice plan every day, so contact tracing would have been possible if it had been needed,” he said. “The kids and the coaches were just so grateful to have games.”
The coaches all bit their tongues when it came to complaints about the one-size-fits-all 200-people limitation in any stadium throughout the state, except for 400 in the last local round Saturday, March 20.
Since almost all the people allowed were players, coaches, cheerleaders and game officials, only a smattering of parents were allowed until the final round.
However, most schools adapted, live-streaming their games.
Lynden coach Blake VanDalen said he’ll always remember what the games meant to his seniors.
“We had kids like our senior running back Caleb Wheeler, who had sacrificed a lot in our program. On his football ‘bucket list’ was to return a kickoff for a touchdown and he did that against LC.”
