Avery Buss goes up inside against three North Salem defenders on Feb. 17, at McNary High School. (JOSHUA MANES/Keizertimes) 
Steven Adams puts a floater up over Sprague’s Orion Powers in the second quarter on Jan. 23 at McNary High School. (JOSHUA MANES/Keizertimes) 
Cole Pedersen competes in the varsity boys 100 yard butterfly on Jan. 5 at the Kroc Center in Salem against South Salem. (JOSHUA MANES/Keizertimes) 
Madeleine McLain, Taylor Madsen, Evelyn Hales and Meili Skipper celebrate their win against Sprague in the varsity girls 200 yard medley relay on Jan. 19, at the Kroc Center in Salem. (JOSHUA MANES/Keizertimes) 
Max Blanco lifs Sprague’s Elijah Ezpeleta on Feb. 2, at McNary High School. (JOSHUA MANES/Keizertimes)
The winter blues will take on a new meaning on Tuesday, Nov. 21, when McNary High School hosts Winter Blue Day.
Blue Day is the traditional kickoff for McNary athletics prior to the start of the fall semester. This year, winter sports get the showcase treatment as well.
From 6-9 p.m. in the McNary gym, boys and girls basketball, wrestling and swimming will celebrate the start of their seasons in front of friends and family.
It will be ladies first at Winter Blue Day, with girls basketball opening the evening. The girls from Keizer Youth Basketball Association (KYBA) will be on at 6 p.m. McNary JV/frosh teams will take the floor at 6:10 p.m., with varsity following at 6:20 p.m.
They may be fish out of water at Blue Day, but McNary swimming will be front-and-center at 6:30 p.m. with a hype video for the upcoming season.
After swimming it’s back to hoops, first with the Unified program at 6:50 p.m. Unified Champion Schools is a collaboration with Special Olympics, and is an inclusive sports program that brings students with and without disabilities together on the same team.
The KYBA boys will take the court at 7 p.m., followed by McNary boys JV/frosh at 7:10 p.m. and varsity boys at 7:20 p.m.
Following the parent meeting, wrestling hits the mat in the gym at 8 p.m. There will be three varsity/JV matches as well as a few youth matches.
And after the students are all showcased, it’s time for the McNary staff as staff sumo wrestling is scheduled to close the evening at 8:30 p.m.