Here’s the latest casualty in the pig population’s war on humanity: Prep sports in Texas have been shut down until May 11. Without any local confirmed cases of swine flu, Washington Interscholastic Activities Association executive director Mike Colbrese says that, for now, it’s balls and strikes as usual on high school baseball diamonds. “It’s unfortunate that Texas is having to go through that,” he says. “Charles [Breithaupt, the Texas University Interscholastic League executive director] is a good friend of mine, and those are tough decisions to make.”
But that does kind of raise the question: At what point would the WIAA suspend afterschool sports? “I’d hate to speculate,” Colbrese says. “I couldn’t tell you.” He did reference a recent outbreak of whooping cough that spread in the Tacoma Dome during the state high school wrestling tournament in February. In situations like those, he says, “we basically work directly with the Washington State Department of Health, take their lead and get their suggestions, and of course all of our schools would follow suit.”
Colbrese sounded somber throughout our four-minute conversation, and even though he didn’t say anything about pulling the trigger on a sports suspension any time soon, he’s monitoring the situation and says the WIAA will do what’s necessary when and if it comes to that in Washington. “There’s always a concern,” he says, “because one of our primary responsibilities is to provide a safe environment for the athletes and fans.”
Man, this thing is getting depressing.
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