State settles with athletes, allowing indoor sports

Indoor sports activists earned a swift and sweeping victory Thursday in a legal settlement with the state of California that will remove the state’s additional restrictions on sports like basketball, volleyball and wrestling.

The settlement, which will allow all sports to operate under the same reopening tier using similar protocols to those in collegiate and professional play, came in response to a lawsuit filed last month in San Diego County by a pair of high school football players. Their attorney, Stephen C. Grebing, managing partner of Wingert Grebing of San Diego, said the settlement will allow all sports to compete in counties with adjusted case rates below 14 per 100,000, possibly as early as Friday.

“Indoors, (the requirements are) going to be pretty rigid,” Grebing said. “But they’re going to be allowed to play.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to comment on the settlement when asked Thursday, but Dr. Mark Ghaly, the Secretary for Health and Human Services, said updated sports guidelines would be released in the coming days. Attorneys for return-to-play advocates said the settlement was still being finalized Thursday afternoon but that they had “been assured (Newsom) has signed off on the new guidelines released by CDPH this week.”

Student-athletes in all but a handful of California’s 58 counties will be allowed under state rules to play indoor sports. However, local counties and school districts will still have the option to opt-out of the agreement, Grebing said.