For the first time in a long time, we had an off week this week during the season. It wasn’t on purpose, but both our “A” game and our “Plan B” games were cancelled, so we had to go with Plan C. Plan C entailed sitting on the couch watching an episode of Perry Mason, so the evening wasn’t a complete disaster, but if things keep going like they have been, it’s going to get a lot more difficult to plan for a complete season of high school football.
Sometime in the past week, McKenzie High School cancelled their scheduled football game for Friday night and hastily replaced it with a Thursday night game. That didn’t work for the Ednolds' schedule, but there was another Friday night game in that same part of the state, so there was no reason to think that everything wouldn’t work out just fine. That Thursday game at McKenzie went off without a hitch, with the Eagles beating up on the Washington School for the Deaf, 51-19, but when we arrived in Oakridge on Friday the coaches from visiting Lost River were huddled up waiting for word about where their game would be taking place. The whole process was new to me, and until recently there was no doubt where games would be played once they were scheduled.
Eventually, those coaches received word that their game against Oakridge would be played at Lowell High School, 20 miles downstream along the Willamette River where the air was healthy enough for young athletes to breathe. Someone had decided to err on the side of air, and since someday we’ll make our way to Lowell to watch the Red Devils play on their home field, we opted against watching Oakridge and Lost River play at a neutral site. Instead, we drove back home to enjoy Raymond Burr and Frankie Laine in The Case of the Jaded Joker.
Though in some ways air polution has decreased over the past 50 years due to emission controls and regulations, population growth and other factors have contributed to an increase in the number of days when it's downright unhealthy to breathe the air. So, the OSAA, in consultation with the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon DEQ, has issued guidelines to help schools decide when it is or isn’t healthy to play outdoor sports. There are monitoring stations around the state, and the monitor kicks out an AQI number, and if that number is too high, games are either canceled or moved to a healthier location. There is no hard and fast rule for locations with a value falling between 100-150, as Oakridge was, but if that value exceeds 150 the games must be canceled or moved. The Air Quality Index is based on concentrations of ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter in the air, and apparently the readings in Oakridge were too high, while those in Lowell were passable. There definitely was a thick layer of haze further up the valley in Oakridge, where the lingering effects of forest fires in the area are more persistent. There’s a handy-dandy interactive air quality map at AirNow.Gov that you can use to check the air all over the county but, unfortunately it doesn't tell you when a game has been cancelled or moved.
Back in the olden days I don’t remember ever having to consider air quality during football season. It always seemed to be raining, so smoke in the air wasn’t much of a concern. But things have changed, and fire season has grown in both intensity and duration over the years. In fact, looking at the air quality figures for Oakridge there wasn’t a single year prior to 2017 with more than 3 days of unhealthy air, while there have been 79 such days in the past four years. It’s almost as if there has been some kind of change in our climate or something. Judging from the trend, I expect cancelations and neutral site games will become more and more common, as if we needed another obstacle to overcome on our quest.
As it was, the air in Oakridge was just over the threshold and they could have played the game there if they wanted to. But since they ended up losing 46-0 I suspect they played the game in Lowell so that we would have to come back at a later date when they were a little better prepared. But it was a nice drive through the turning foliage as we drove up into the hills along the Willamette, and it’s always nice to see the little town of Oakridge. Throw in a little Perry Mason and it made for a pretty good night. Just seeing Perry and Paul and Della hanging out in a beatnik bar made it worthwhile, and I won’t spoil the suspense by telling you how it turned out. The best part is not knowing whether Perry's going to be able to pull it off or not.
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