In the nick of time, Park City is back in game

MIDVALE — It would be hard to imagine an about-face more abrupt than the one UHSAA executive director Dave Wilkey pulled off Tuesday morning.

Think Red Sox vs. Yankees in the 2004 playoffs.

That kind of turnaround.

One minute he was explaining why Park City High School probably wouldn't be defending its 3A boys soccer title, thanks to swine flu concerns; the next minute he was living out an insurance commercial: Life comes at you fast.

Game on.

In the midst of a subdued press conference, announcing the UHSAA couldn't change its spring sports schedule to accommodate the closing of Park City schools — effectively eliminating the Miners from the playoffs — Wilkey eyed a fax he had received moments earlier but hadn't read.

The statement said the Summit County Health Department was recommending the high school be reopened, post haste. Which meant the boys' soccer champs were back in business.

"That's wonderful news," said Wilkey, choking with emotion. "This kind of changes the flavor and tone of where this press conference goes."

The Miners had defeated the most fearsome of all opponents: cancellation.

The surprising turn of events relieved five days of unrelenting strain on Wilkey, who waited 31 years to lead the UHSAA. He took the top job last fall, approximately the same time the economy went south. Suddenly some programs were struggling to avoid budget shortfalls. Football, for example, ended up $80,000 light on the state level, which, as Wilkey put it, "doesn't seem like a lot, but it's a lot to us."

Among other issues that appeared during his first months as director were a drill team controversy — including allegations of a cheating judge — and a ballplayer arrested for allegedly passing a counterfeit bill and ruled ineligible at one school, yet hoping to play for another school in the same district.

Each was an emotion-charged issue.

When you're dealing with people's kids, it always is.

But the biggest challenge in his career, Wilkey said, was the flu scare. Park City schools closed last week after a confirmed case of swine flu showed up.

"This one extracted more than anything I've seen," said Wilkey.

He and other officials were up until after midnight Monday, trying to work something out. The PCSD had requested spring sports schedules be delayed until the high school reopened. But calendering conflicts with other schools prevented that; the UHSAA said it couldn't budge.

The show would go on, as scheduled.