CMC votes to cancel fall, winter sports
Cross country is lone survivor among fall sports casualties
LAtH COUNTY >> By a vote of 17-3 with two abstentions and two members not voting, the high schools that make up the Coastal Mountain Conference decided on Monday to cancel all fall sports except cross country as well as the winter sports of basketball and wrestling because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This vote covers only the current 2020-21 sports season.
“It’s a nightmare,” CMC Commissioner Robert Pinoli said of the vote that affects CMC-member schools in Lake, Sonoma, Napa, Marin and Mendocino counties.
“We can’t do anything until we get the OK from the state,” Pinoli said of the color-coded tier structure that determines which sports can take place depending on what color a particular county finds itself in based on the spread of the virus.
Among the fall sports of football, volleyball, soccer and cross country, only cross country can take place in the most restrictive purple tier, which is where all but a handful of counties find themselves right now. Football, volleyball and soccer aren’t allowed until a county reaches the orange tier, which is two steps up from purple. Basketball and wrestling aren’t allowed until the yellow tier, which is three steps up from purple.
Both the fall and winter seasons are way behind schedule because of the coronavirus, which has led to the cancellation of all athletic competition for the county’s high school teams since mid-March of 2020. In a normal sports season, fall sports are contested between late August and mid-December while winter sports are contested from late November to mid-March.
“It’s sad, but I think everybody knew it was coming,” longtime Middletown High School football coach Bill Foltmer said. “I don’t see us getting into the orange tier for another couple of months, if then.”
With less than five months to go before end of the school year, Pinoli said time was a critical factor in the decision of the CMC’s principals and athletic directors, who participated in Monday’s Zoom meeting, to take the action they did.
“We’re running out of time to play these sports,” said Pinoli, who said the CMC is essentially handcuffed by the state’s colorcoded tier system.
Additionally, the CIF had already released an April 17 deadline for the conclusion of the football season with an eye toward the beginning of the 2021 fall season. A minimum amount of time must take place between football seasons.
“Come August I hope it’s back to normal,” said Pinoli with a look ahead to the 2021-2022 sports season “Right now there are too many ifs. The only sports allowed right now (in the purple tier) are swimming, cross county, golf, tennis and track and field.”
Anything short of the state completely opening up in the next day or two or Gov. Gavin Newsom declaring the color-coded system null and void will be too late for fall and winter sports this season.
“If the governor says you can do what you want tomorrow, if something miraculous like that happens, then we could take another look at it,” Pinoli said. “Otherwise there’s no way it’s going to happen and it’s time we stop stringing people along.”
Foltmer, who has held twice-a-week voluntary condition workouts at the school for several months, said he feels bad not only for athletes, especially his seniors, but for all other students who participate in drama, band, cheerleading and other schoolrelated activities.
“My first thought goes to the seniors,” Foltmer said. “You work all this time to get to this point and then it’s gone. I cannot imagine not having football and basketball my senior season. I was totally into sports. But it’s not just athletes who are suffering. All the kids are. Can you imagine no dances in high school?”
Mike Damiata, the firstyear varsity boys basketball coach at Clear Lake High School, will have to wait until at least the 202122 campaign to experience that first season.
“Bottom line is I feel terrible for the seniors. My heart breaks for them,” Damiata said. “These guys worked all offseason, most of the time on their own out on the playground just hoping to have a season, and now it’s been taken from them.
“I just don’t think it’s right. As for moving forward I know the rest of the guys and the other coaches are excited to get started and looking forward to next year. We’ll be back in the gym as soon as they let us in and we’ll work hard to be ready to go next season. It’s going to be a whole new group of guys and we will have to instill in them the culture that we built over Scott’s tenure (former head coach Scott De Leon). That part is exciting, but I just feel terrible for those seniors,: Damiata added.
The sole surviving fall sport, cross country, could officially hold practices as early as next Monday depending on the outcome of a North Coast Section Board of Managers meeting set for Friday. Depending on what happens there, the CMC principals and athletic directors meet again this coming Monday to determine a timeline and structure for competition, which could begin in mid-February.
“Even if practices start on (Monday) Feb. 1, we’re not going to start (meets) on Wednesday (Feb. 3),” Pinoli said. “My guess is that the coaches will want a few weeks to get their teams ready.”