Nanook sports are a go for now
High school sports for NomeBeltz students are a reality but it’s not possible to say what the season will look like. Cross-country has had several races and the Lady Nanook Volleyball team played a squad of Nanook Alumnae last Friday in a game that was broadcast live for Nanook volleyball fans. Wrestling begins on Nov. 3 and basketball will start after the winter break.
The Alaska School Activities Association, ASAA for short, is setting guidelines for practices and competitions and the Nome Public Schools are following those.
As of Friday, Oct. 2 there was only one active case of COVID-19 in Nome and the individual was not infected by community transmission. If the numbers stay this low, the sports will continue.
Travel is highly restricted with very limited exceptions. The state cross country championships will take place on Saturday, Oct. 10 at Anchorage’s Kincaid Park. The Western Region will be allowed to send the two fastest boys and the two fastest girls to the championship. As Nome is the only school with a XC running team this year, those four students will be Nanooks. When they return from Anchorage they will quarantine.
BSSD plans on sending Kanayaq Ivanoff from Unalakleet and Caelin Kingeekuk from Savoonga for high school boys. For the high school girls, Alaina Pete from Brevig Mission and Patricia Washington from St. Michael.
The announcement that wrestling
was on came as a surprise. “With wrestling we will follow the Alaska School Activities Association,” said Nome Public Schools Superintendent Jamie Burgess. “They’re providing us with guidelines for what we can put in place to keep students safe. We do recognize that wrestling and basketball and football are higher risk for students to participate in.” With the travel restrictions, the Nanook wrestlers will be wrestling each other. Even in normal, nonCOVID-19 conditions, wrestlers in a number of remote schools around the state battle only their teammates until regionals.
“We’re the only volleyball team in the Western Conference playing 3A,” said Nome-Beltz Athletic Director Patrick Callahan. “We’re not going on trips or playing home games but we’ve got a team going. So, we’ll be the only entrants in the state 3A tournament.” According to Callahan the team will be able to go on one trip and then will have to quarantine on return. As the only team in the region actively playing, the Lady Nanooks should have an open door to the state championships. “Now the hiccup will be if Bethel and Barrow start teams all of a sudden, like two weeks before state tournament. Then Region 1 would have to decide which two of the three get to go,” said Callahan. “So, I’ve been pushing Region 1 pretty hard to give us a deadline, a date where if other teams aren’t practicing we should know if we’re going or not.”
The volleyball game against the Alumnae team was a fresh change from the isolation and social distancing of recent times. Only a few fans were allowed to attend and they were mostly the parents of graduating senior players. As possibly the only home game this season, it became senior night. The team of alumnae showed some serious skill and with some practice would be a tough opponent for the Lady Nanooks.
“It’s exciting,” said Lady Nanook Head Coach Veronica Alviso. “We’re happy we were able to plan it, coordinate it, and get some strong alumnae to come out and play against us. I told the girls ‘don’t underestimate the old people.’” Coach Alviso is hopeful there will be more games. “We’re just looking at being prepared for anything. We’ll be excited and thankful if we can play more games, but we care about the safety of our community so if we don’t get to, we’re just excited we get to meet as a team and work on our skills.”
“Jamie Burgess and Jay Thomas have been open to us practicing and doing as much as we can,” said Patrick Callahan. “With basketball you’ll see us doing a lot of things like this volleyball game. I’m hoping volleyball will do some more of these. Like maybe a city league team, not necessarily alumnae. So I hope they do a couple more of these, but that’s their call.”
“We know that wrestling is a hard decision to do, but Nome is doing really well,” said Superintendent Burgess. “Our community’s choices and behaviors are really going to determine what’s going to happen with our kids. We have people who are following travel quarantine requirements carefully and trying to stay as much as they can within social distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing. It’s possible if we get a case within the team we’ll do like we did with our volleyball. We’ll stop all activities immediately and then make a decision whether it’s safe to resume or not.”