An interview with Prescott's Athletic Director, Jeff Foertsch

The following is a brief interview with the Prescott School District’s Dean of Students/Athletic Director, Jeff Foertsch. We discussed summer activities, school sports schedules, Esports, and the Prescott School District App, which can be found by searching for “Prescott School District, WA” in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

Q: When did you start using the Prescott School District App?

A: “We’ve had the app maybe three or four years, but in terms of athletics, it started last year. The new administration here, Justin Bradford, is very much in favor of using the app and using Facebook. We are trying to get our communication down to one system, so we are all using it. Of course, in athletics this year in Washington, we’ve all gone to the Arbiter (ArbiterSports) system. We can now link our Arbiter schedules that athletic directors have to make to the app, so in theory, everything is found in one place. It also allows for communication between coaches and students without necessarily having to use personal phone numbers or personal emails, which obviously we would prefer not to do for overall safety reasons.”

Q: Looking at the app, it looks like soccer is starting up soon?

A: “In Washington after Memorial Day, we are allowed to do summer activities. At this point, they are also potentially planning to go to “The Bomber Summer Classic in the middle of July.” It is a tournament in Richland that some years we’ve gone to. The plan is to go there this year as well.”

(The Bomber Summer Classic is a soccer tournament for High School boys and girls teams held in Richland and was started in 1997.)

Q: Will there be games locally?

A: “Not this summer, no. So, the only games I think the soccer kids are doing will be at the Bomber Classic.”

Q: Do you anticipate high school sports will reset to regular schedules come fall?

A: “As of today, that is what I believe is happening, yes. We are going back to a normal schedule where we are currently allowed for summer activities. This year’s rule was that you could do out-of-season coaching after two weeks of the season. So other sports could continue to go if they chose to. Of course, here at a small school, we didn’t run two sports at a time for anything. There are just not enough kids. I do believe that come fall, we are supposed to be back to as normal as possible. In District 9, we didn’t play basketball this year. As a group, we voted to finish our basketball before Memorial Day. Mostly because a lot of the Whitman County schools have graduation earlier, and people didn’t think they would be able to field teams following graduation.”

Q: Are you considering starting an Esports program in the district?

A: “There has been some discussion here about Esports. My understanding, the WIAA is going to be a go next year. I'm not sure about here at this school. We have a technology club that’s run by Coach (Allyn) Griffin. We have talked a little bit about potentially jumping into that, but as of right now, there are no one hundred percent definite plans for that. I will tell you, though, if there is interest here, we will look into it. We are not going to say no, it is not a real sport, or we are not doing it. If kids want to do it, it is something that we will definitely pursue here. I don’t think most of the Whitman County people are very interested in ESports. It hasn’t been promoted much, at least where I go to meetings at District 9. I think it is potentially coming here.”

Q: Would the district require additional resources to start an Esports program?

A: “I think that’s a question we don’t know the answer to. I’ve done a little bit of work on Esports, and I’ve attended some online meetings over Zoom and so forth. I think that we have the equipment to do it if we wanted to get started.”

We ended the conversation with Foertsch expressing confidence that should students want to participate in Esports, the District would provide necessary upgrades to introduce it into the school. After a challenging year for school athletics, it is heartening to see the AD keep the focus on the students and their access to athletics.