As the Marysville, Wash., community attempts to heal following a tragic school shooting this past Friday, the Marysville-Pilchuck High School football team is also trying to return to normalcy.
The team returned to practice Monday. Afterward, head coach Brandon Carson told The Herald of Everett, Washington. “That just shows you what kind of people they are. Those guys have showed it tonight just by coming here and coming to the vigil and visiting us at our team meeting. I can’t put into words what it means for not only high school athletics, but for our team to get through this grieving process.”
Oak Harbor head coach Jay Turner, a 1990 graduate of Marysville-Pilchuck, said the decision was a no-brainer.
“It’s not just because it’s Marysville. It’s the right thing to do,” Turner told the paper. “We had a meeting with our kids after school and then I talked with my coaches and we were all in 100 percent agreement that it was the right thing to do.”
Marysville-Pilchuck is set to take on Meadowdale in the Wesco 3A championship this Friday at 8 p.m. PT, according to the Herald. However, as Marysville Superintendent Becky Berg told The Seattle Times, Oak Harbor’s actions over the past few days transcend football.
“It’s not all about football, but it’s about habits of the heart,” Berg said. “What our kids learned went far beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic, and this will be a great lesson.”