“It was the right thing to do.”

That is what Oak Harbor High School football coach Jay Turner said after the Wildcats football team forfeited Friday’s game against Marysville-Pilchuck.

The two schools were primed to meet Friday evening at Wildcat Memorial Stadium to decide the Wesco 3A North title.

Everything changed Friday morning, however, after  a freshman football player from Marysville-Pilchuck shot five other students, killing two, before he shot and killed himself.

Turner, a 1990 Marysville-Pilchuck graduate, met with his coaching staff soon after hearing about the tragedy. It was clear just minutes into the meeting, with all agreeing, that offering to forfeit was the correct path.

Oak Harbor’s gesture of conceding the game received national attention, with praise cropping up on radio, television and the Internet.

“It wasn’t our intent that it got out there, or to become what it has become,” Turner said.

“The big thing is to keep the focus on Marysville-Pilchuck.”

The gesture nonetheless caught the attention of the Seattle Seahawks.

Turner said he received a call Monday from the Seahawks inviting Oak Harbor and Marysville-Pilchuck to use their practice facilities in Renton Tuesday, Nov. 4.

“I definitely would like to take the kids down there for this opportunity,” Turner said Tuesday morning, “but it does take some planning as most of the coaches are teachers, so I’m not sure if it will work out or not.

“We will need buses, sub coverage, etc.”

During a press conference Monday, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said that the team wants to do whatever it can to offer support for each school.

“Our hearts just opened immediately to try to help in any way that we can,” Carroll said. “When they are faced with an opportunity about a playoff situation and the other school decides to forfeit the game, what an extraordinary gesture. And I think it’s a gesture in every direction and an understanding and compassion that it’s good to be recognized.

“You feel so helpless, but we wish that we could do something to ease the pain of all of the people that have been troubled.”

After meeting with his staff Friday, Turner said he met with Oak Harbor High School Athletic Director Nicki Luper to discuss forfeiting the game. She was “100 percent” behind the decision, Turner said.

Next came a call to Marysville-Pilchuck football coach Brandon Carson.

“We wanted to give them every option, including not playing the game,” Turner said. “With all that they were going through, we wanted to do whatever they needed.

“I told him, ‘We will do whatever you need to do. I don’t want you to have to worry about a game when you are worrying about the kids and what they are going through.’ ”

In addition to forfeiting the game, a group of Oak Harbor players traveled to Marysville Friday as a show of support. They visited a Marysville-Pilchuck team meeting and a vigil being held at a Marysville church.

“They decided to do that on their own,” Turner said. “I didn’t know about it until about 10 minutes before they left.

“That shows you the caliber of our kids.”

Not everyone was pleased with the forfeit. Some commenters on social media criticized the decision.

Even before Friday’s game, both Marysville-Pilchuck and Oak Harbor were qualified for the playoffs.

By forfeiting, Oak Harbor finished second in the Wesco North and will host Mountlake Terrace, the second-place team from the south, at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, in a seeding game. The winner will be the No. 3 seed out of the Western Conference and host the Seamount League champion in a quad-district game Nov. 7 or 8.

The loser of that game will travel to play the second-place team from the Narrows League.

Marysville-Pilchuck will host Meadowdale, the South champion, to determine the first and second seeds.