High school football returned to the Treasure Valley on Saturday.
Hopefully youth sports and school recess will return fully next week.
But the smoky air that locked most of us indoors for four days last week will return – perhaps in the next few days.
For high school sports teams, the smoke brings a logistical challenge and scheduling uncertainty but easy decision-making. If the air is unhealthy, practices and games are canceled.
For the Boise State football team, it’s not that simple. Yet it should be: Don’t play in air rated unhealthy.
The Mountain West Conference and the NCAA have studied the air quality issue in recent years as it has become clear that smoke-clogged air is going to be a late-summer regularity across the West.