Bravo, Oak Harbor football, for giving us something to smile about on such a tragic day.

The Wildcats were scheduled to host Marysville Pilchuck on Friday night in a game that would have decided the Wesco 3A North Division title. Instead, a tragedy that in the past we would have called unimaginable, but which we now have heard about far too often, occurred at Marysville Pilchuck — another school shooting, this one in our own backyard. Marysville suddenly became not just a town in Snohomish County, but another name on a list that has grown way too long in recent years.

Two young people were dead, four more critically injured. This was not a day for football. Of course games were canceled; it would be obscene to ask kids to play sports on a day their friends and classmates had died or been wounded, and on a night when their campus was still a crime scene.

But while sports took an appropriate back seat on Friday, the reality of upcoming postseason for fall sports also means games need to be rescheduled; league titles and playoff seeding decided.

Which brings us back to Oak Harbor and one of the most touching acts of sportsmanship you, I or anyone else has likely ever witnessed. Rather than figure out when they could reschedule a league-title deciding game against a grieving Marysville Pilchuck squad, Oak Harbor’s coaches and players came up with another solutionForfeit.

Yes, rather than play for a championship, as well as the improved playoff seeding that would come with it, the Wildcats offered to not make up the game, conceding the title to the Tomahawks in the process.“There’s a lot of stuff riding on this game, but there are a lot bigger things than a football game right now,” Oak Harbor football coach Jay Turner said. “I can’t imagine what the Marysville community is going through right now. They don’t need to be worried about trying to fit in a game in the days after a tragedy like this. They’ve got much bigger things to worry about right now.”

Bravo, Oak Harbor football, bravo.

In moments of tragedy like this, it’s easy to say that sports don’t matter, or that they’re just trivial games with no real-world value, but this gesture shows how sports can bring out the very best in us. This tragedy in Marysville will bring up important debates, and maybe, just maybe, some actual action for once. We’ll argue about gun control, about doing more to combat mental health issues and to curb bullying in schools, all very important discussions, but thanks to the Wildcats and football, we’ll also remember the power of one community rallying to support another.

The Wildcats would have been within their rights to tell Marysville Pilchuck to take a couple of days to heal, then figure out a way to make up the game early next week. After all, those kids at Oak Harbor worked all season for a chance at the title they are one win away from securing. But instead, Turner, a 1990 graduate of Marysville Pilchuck, talked with his players and his coaching staff, then reached out to Marysville Pilchuck coach Brandon Carson with an unbelievably selfless offer.