Clock is ticking for resumption of high school sports

The calendar pages keep turning but there still has been no high school athletics in California since mid-March when the pandemic halted the state basketball playoffs right before championship weekend and all spring sports were called off shortly thereafter.

Hopes for normal 2020-21 school year sports were dashed in July when the California Interscholastic Federation put a halt to all games until 2021. Now that we are in 2021, each passing day lessens the opportunities for the 830,000 student athletes in the country’s largest state to participate before their terms end in June.

Early December was identified in that July plan for the resumption of official training for the first set of sports to resume in the state’s 10 sections in order for condensed schedules for all the high school sports broken into three seasons running from January to June this year.

Those hopes were dashed when the new surge of COVID-19 cases created an increased health hazard in the late fall. CIF said that “due to the continued surge in COVID-19 infections, the California Department of Public Health has postponed the issuance of its updated youth sports guidance.” Eventually Jan. 25 became the new target date for a resumption of training and eventually competition.

New proposal

Early last week CIF came out with a new proposal for two overlapping seasons:

Season 1 January-April: Cross country, field hockey, football, gymnastics, skiing/snowboarding, competitive cheer, girls volleyball, water polo.

Season 2 March – June: Baseball, badminton, sport cheer, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, track and field, tennis and wrestling.

The state organization explained that this new plan is subject to adherence of all California Department of Public Health and individual county guidelines. This is where the scheduling of sports doesn’t, at present, match up with the reality of the health situation in Contra Costa and most of the state, for that matter.

Currently, the entire Bay Area is in the “widespread” purple tier just days before the target date for resuming training in Season 1. The only sports allowed in areas during widespread tier that are in the Season 1 plan are cross country and skiing/snowboarding.

North Coast Section commissioner of athletics Pat Cruickshank says he is hopeful to announce more details of a plan for NCS schools this week. You can presume much discussion at the state and section levels revolves around moving sports eligible to be held in widespread tier such as swimming and diving, track and field, golf and tennis into Season 1.

That will allow more time for the coronavirus statistics to improve so that counties will be able to move into the substantial, moderate and minimal tiers. CIF has connected allowable participation in each sport to a tier with the indoor spots of wrestling, basketball and competitive cheer the most restricted in the minimal tier.

Availability of the new vaccines may hasten improved health statistics but forecasts of early summer herd immunity after a significant percentage of the population has been vaccinated would be too late for this year’s high school athletes.

Local high school officials react to sports delays

Cat Arroyo, Carondelet assistant athletic director and former USA national team water polo player “It is disappointing but understandable given the rising positivity rate. In such uncertain times we are continually planning for every scenario.  We are looking forward to finding ways to keep our student-athletes motivated in their training and to find opportunities that will safely allow them to compete when guidelines allow.”

Megan Coddington, Concord High co-athletic director and softball coach “With basically every county in California back in the purple tier, a decision based on what they [CIF] thought was in the best interest for student safety had to be made. Student-athlete safety, whether that be physical, developmental, emotional or mental, has always been of utmost importance in our athletic program. I know that many of our coaches and athletes were disappointed to hear this news from CIF, especially when outside club organizations and other states continue to press ahead with their athletic practices and events. I have reiterated many times to our coaching staff that the theme for this year is ‘flexibility and adaptability.’ Thus far, our coaches and athletes have been doing an amazing job following the MDUSD Summer Camp safety protocols that the athletic directors helped to establish in August. These camps have had such a positive effect on our athletes’ physical and emotional mindset. It has been awesome to see kids getting back into shape and enjoying the social interaction, limited as it may be.”

Bob Ralston, CVCHS athletic director and long-time high school and college baseball coach “We are going to continue to stay positive and encourage our students to keep preparing for a season.”

Matthew Harrod, Concord High co-athletic director and baseball coach “Our goal now is to continue to prepare for the potential start of sports. The plan is to operate under the guidance/restrictions offered up by Contra Costa County and MDUSD, which currently allow us to operate in pods of 14 players and two coaches per pod.”

Tim Murphy, Clayton Valley Charter football coach “I really just want these seniors to get a chance to be able to play their senior year and get film for those on the cusp of being offered [college opportunity]. Bottom line, if the adults can do their part these kids would be able to play. I’m so sick of hearing about people complaining about wearing a mask or not being able to gather in big groups.”

Paul Reynaud, Concord High football coach “The postponement is frustrating and stressful for our players who want so badly to be back on the field for Friday nights, but we talk about handling adversity every day and they have done a great job doing that. We will just continue to be creative in getting better every day. Hopefully, this push back will allow the higher ups to establish a functional plan for safely returning to the field as we can see the college and pro levels with their vast resources are still battling keeping their players healthy and on the field week to week.”

Bryan Shaw, Ygnacio Valley football coach “These are unprecedented times. Since March, we as educators, coaches and student athletes have learned to be flexible. As hard as it has been on our players in terms of continual delay, it has been even harder in their homes and for their community. During distance learning many are helping their siblings with their schoolwork and many have gotten jobs to help their families pay their bills to maintain a roof over their heads. We have been running pods of student-athletes for conditioning since June following strict protocols. These have served for conditioning, but more importantly to allow kids to get outside with their friends and be kids.”

Visit The Pioneer website for updates on high school sports in 2020-21.