Postponed prep games piling up
M'town, Cloverdale boys could play Thursday night
LAKE COUNTY >> North Central League I basketball teams should be closing in on the midway point of their 16-game schedule, instead many are still stuck at two games played because of COVID-related cancellations this week and last.
In fact, most teams have postponed more games than they’ve played to date. Among varsity boys teams, three of the nine — Clear Lake, Kelseyville and Fort Bragg — have played just two games while two others — Middletown and St. Helena — have played only three. Cloverdale, Lower Lake, Roseland University Prep and Willits are the clubhouse leaders with four games completed. Cloverdale is 4-0 in league and 14-0 overall.
It’s pretty much the same for the varsity girls side where Kelseyville and Fort Bragg have played two games, Clear Lake, Cloverdale, Middletown and St. Helena three games, and Lower Lake and Willits four apiece.
Just when the current omicron-variant wave will ease its assault on California is anyone’s guess at this point, but even if it’s only another week or so, it could force the league to shorten its season since it is up against a Feb. 12 deadline to complete the regular season, which is just a month away. With the North Coast Section playoffs set to begin Feb. 15, that means local teams are going to have to scramble.
A handful of NCL I schools — RUP and Lower Lake among them — have suspended all sporting activity until Jan. 24. Most teams are taking this week off and will resume athletic competition — if the COVID conditions allow — on Monday.
The only game played so far this week was Cloverdale’s 6350 win at St. Helena in varsity boys action on Tuesday night. The Cloverdale-St. Helena girls
are set to meet Friday in Cloverdale. Lake County teams haven’t played in more than a week, a streak that could end Thursday when the Middletown (30) and Cloverdale (4-0) varsity boys could meet in Middletown although that game hasn’t been finalized just yet, according to Middletown head coach G.J. Rockwell. There will be no Middletown-Cloverdale girls games that day.
“It was originally scheduled to be in Cloverdale,” Rockwell said of the Middletown-Cloverdale varsity boys games. “They’re talking now about moving
them to Middletown. I haven’t received final word yet.”
Rockwell said he would know more by his team’s Wednesday night practice and is hoping to get back out on the court as soon as possible.
Middletown’s scheduled boys and girls games Saturday against Willits have been postponed.
High school teams do have the option of scheduling games on Sundays after the section waved the rule prohibiting play on that day in order to make up games postponed because of COVID-19. Right now athletic directors are scrambling to reschedule games, but it’s difficult with NCL I games spread out over four different
counties — Lake, Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma — and all with different regulations regarding COVID-19 protocols. Games taking place in Sonoma County (at RUP or Cloverdale) won’t allow fans because of current COVID-19 restrictions.
Wrestling
Wrestling is now running into the same COVID-19 slowdown that basketball is experiencing. Coastal Mountain Conference tri-meets were scheduled to begin Wednesday, but meets at Upper Lake and Willits were postponed.
Middletown was scheduled to visit Willits for a three-team meet also involving Fort Bragg, but
will have to wait at least another week to make its CMC debut.
“Middletown is ready to wrestle anybody,” Middletown assistant coach Brian Hunt said. “When Willits told us it wasn’t going to happen, I was willing to go to Fort Bragg (for a dual) if that’s what it took to wrestle. They told me they were shut down too.”
After losing the entire 2020-21 season to the COVID-19 pandemic, area basketball and wrestling coaches such as Hunt are determined to get their athletes, especially the seniors who lost their junior seasons, back into action.
“I may be a wrestling coach, but I feel for the basketball kids as well,” Hunt said. “They’ve lost
one year and this is their last chance. They need to be playing.”
The Mustangs only have five seniors on a large wrestling roster, which bodes well for the team in future seasons, but Hunt wants those seniors to have as close to a full season as possible.
“We need to wrestle,” he said.
Middletown is still scheduled to compete this weekend with the girls and junior varsity boys headed to the Sutter Invitational while the varsity boys, and perhaps a handful of JVs, travel to the North Coast Classic in Eureka, which will prohibit fans.
“No spectators allowed and the wrestlers will be tested before the tournament,”
said Hunt, who doesn’t expect either tournament to be canceled.
“Sutter is in the North Section where there seems to be a different mindset (regarding COVID-19 restrictions),” Hunt said. “I’d be really surprised if they canceled.”
As far as the CMC season of tri-meets, Hunt said contingency plans are in the works for holding a string of makeup dual meets on the same day and at the same location in February in order to complete the conference race.
“The situation is very fluid right now, so it’s tough to say what will happen,” Hunt said. “But at least we have a plan in the works if we need to make up a bunch of meets.”