High school athletics in limbo, title games canceled

As professional and college sports leagues across the globe put up shutters and announce they are done for the time being, local sports officials are keeping their eye on the spread of coronavirus and its possible impact on their seasons.

For local high school athletics, most of the decisions have come from school districts and administrations, but the Sac-Joaquin Section is keeping informed with its member schools.

“We’ve been in touch with all of our schools, and we sent out a lengthy email today that we’re keeping an eye on the situation,” said Will DeBoard, the Sac-Joaquin Section’s assistant commissioner. “Because we’re such a large section, everything is basically up to local control. Our districts are on the front lines dealing with this in their backyards and their neighbrhoods. They are the ones making choices.”

Should the pandemic spread to the point that the majority of the section’s schools are canceling athletic events, DeBoard said the section could step in and cancel everything, though it has not come up yet in discussions.

“The only thing I can compare this to is the Camp Fire last year. That was a case where we would update daily there,” DeBoard said. “We would kind of have an idea, like, OK, it looks like the wind isn’t going to shift, it will be bad tomorrow.

“With this, it seems like things are happening on a minute-by-minute basis. You look a day and a half ago, not much was going on, and it was a pretty radical idea to cancel sports. Now everybody’s canceling everything, and now the schools that have things going on are weird, but they may not have any cases going on.”

The California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees all California high school sports, made the step on Thursday to cancel the state basketball championship games, which were scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. DeBoard said it was the first time in the 40year history of the state basketball championships that it was canceled.

In fact, the last time a state championship event was canceled was the state track and field championships during World War II, when track was the only sport that had a state championship. The state track meet was also canceled in 1919 for the Spanish Influenza pandemic.

DeBoard said the state office has received pushback on its state basketball decision, most with the argument that the players are young and will be healthy enough to fight the disease.

“I think the fact a child could get ill is on our minds, but this is also a global pandemic, and especially problematic to older peo

ple,” DeBoard said. “You don’t want a kid to get sick and pass it on to their older family members, where it’s now a problem.”

Lodi High baseball

On Thursday, Lodi was en route to El Dorado County to play at Oak Ridge, one of the top teams in the Sacramento area, in a non-league game.

Halfway through the trek, Lodi coach Hobie Schultz said Oak Ridge coach Todd Melton called him to let him know that the game was cancelled.

“At about 1:45 (p.m.), we were halfway there and then we came back,” Schultz said.

Schultz said both his Flames and Melton’s Trojans were anxious to play each other before they start league play. Lodi is a member of the Tri-City Athletic League and Oak Ridge is a part of the Sierra Foothill League.

“They wanted to play,” Schultz said. “They are hoping everything gets made up and we can continue with our season.”

Schultz hopes that for the sake of his squad, the rest of the TCAL and all of the high school

baseball teams in the section that they can keep their season going in some capacity.

“I really it would be smart to continue with the contest, especially an outdoor contest like baseball, softball,” Schultz said.

Schultz offered a suggestion when it comes to opposing players interacting after games.

“After the games, not shake hands but just a head nod,” Schultz said. “You still show your sportmanship after the game.”

Tokay softball

Tokay was scheduled to play Bear Creek’s squad at Arnaiz Softball Complex in Morada. But Bear Creek informed Tokay that it wanted to cancel the game because of the coronavirus.

According to Tokay High Athletic Director Michael Holst, Tokay is scheduled to play intradistrict school McNair in a nonleague game on Monday.

Lodi and Tokay are part of the Lodi Unified School District. Tracy and West are members of the Tracy Unified School District. Lincoln is in the Lincoln Unified School District and St. Mary’s is a private school.

Galt and Liberty Ranch

The Galt High baseball team played at Rosemont of Sacramento in a Sierra Valley Conference game on Thursday. Rosemont posted a 13-3 win over the Warriors.

According to Galt High baseball coach Jason Evans, the Warriors are suppose to host San Juan of Citrus Heights in a nonleague game today at 4 p.m.

The Liberty Ranch High baseball team also had its SVC game against El Dorado’s squad on Thursday postponed.

Lodi Academy and Elliot Christian

According to Lodi Academy High Athletic Director Kory Gabrys, the spring sports student-athletes have been advised that they can choose to shake an opponent’s hand after a contest, if not offer a fist bump.

Gabrys also pointed out that he strong encougares his Titan student-athletes to wash their hands afterwards.

Lodi Academy, which has an enrollment of 90 students per the section’s website, is fielding a boys volleyball team this spring.

Elliot Christian is fielding a baseball, softball, boys golf and boys and girls swimming teams, according to the section’s website. Elliot has an enrollment of 67 students, per the section’s website.

School districts

DeBoard said as of Thursday, about 15 school districts in the Sac-Joaquin Section have canceled athletic events. Elk Grove and Merced’s school districts have suspended play until April 13, and Los Banos Unified School District, with its two high schools in Los Banos and Pacheco, have suspended all sports until further notice.

“The commissioner, Mike Garrison, is meeting with the other section commissioners on Tuesday,” DeBoard said, “but I couldn’t tell you where we go from here, because it’s kind of tough to know where things will be even tomorrow, but less next week. We don’t know if we’re at the summit of this illness, or if it’s going to get better.”

He said even those districts that continue with sports must abide by the state’s recommendation to keep gatherings under 250 people, which will harm swimming and track and field, with their large teams and meets, the most.