Woodland, Pioneer set to start sports seasons
Pioneer and Woodland High School football teams set to face off Friday
Most athletic programs began preparing for competition on March 1. The first season will run through April 23.
After a year-long wait on the sidelines, in the dugout, or in the locker room, sports programs at Woodland and Pioneer High School will soon be back in action once again.
After months of updates, The California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for most high school sports in California, has aligned high school sports into certain county health tiers and broken down all sports into two seasons. Most athletic programs began preparing for competition on March 1.
The first season will run from March 1 through April 23 and includes football, cross country, swimming and diving, golf, and tennis.
Season two will run from April 19 through June 3. These sports include baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball, track and field, and wrestling. The focus for teams this season will be solely on getting the Golen Empire League season completed.
Since the baseball and softball seasons will go on concurrently with the soccer and basketball ones, some students will have to make a hard choice as to what sport they will play.
Students that elect to get jobs or deciding to begin moving on with the rest of their lives will also not be available to play.
Face coverings will remain mandatory and will have to be work at all times, even while running. There are a few exceptions to this, such as swimming.
Depending on who can enter the game and watch, everyone in attendance will still need to remain at least six feet away from non-household members. Among
the athletes, there will be no sharing of drink bottles or other personal equipment.
Indoor sports like basketball and volleyball will need to comply with capacity limits. Once a county is fully in the Red Tier, 10% of the room capacity will be allowed. In the Orange Tier, capacity will be at 25%, and in the Yellow Tier, the capacity allowed in will be at 50%.
Buses will still be used to travel to away games, but social distancing will still need to be adhered to. Before the Woodland Wolves varsity football scrimmage against Winters on Friday evening, three buses were needed to transport all 32 members of the squad. Student-athletes had to answer a few screening questions and take a temperature check before getting on the bus.
For football, both Pioneer and Woodland have been allowed to practice with pads for the past week. Both teams are set to play one another at Pioneer High School on Friday, March 19.
In swimming, Pioneer faced off against Woodland on Saturday, but the results were not yet available. The next meet for Pioneer will be at Pioneer on Saturday, March 27, while Woodland will host Dixon on Saturday, March 20.
The Wolves Cross Country team held their first meet on Saturday as well, against Mesa Verde, and will compete against Casa Robles on March 20.
Co-Ed Tennis will begin with Woodland facing Pioneer on Thursday, March 25.
Anyone interested can find the schedule for season two and the rest of the slate for season one on both the Woodland and Pioneer High School website under athletics.