With hiatus extended, sports again in limbo

Lodi Unified School District announced on Wednesday that all school activities will be out for at least another two weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing the proposed return date from April 6 to April 17.

For local high school sports, that means that if the spring season is able to get going (and that’s a big if), there will be even less time to organize league play and playoffs.

April 17 is on a Friday, so activities would begin the following Monday, April 20.

“April 20 just going back to school doesn’t mean practice goes on, or we can host games with people,” said Tokay athletic director Michael Holst. “Those things are going to be decisions made way above us or the coaches. We’ll lean on what our district says, and they’ll take advice from the county office of education and the health service.”

Lodi Unified has had all school activities suspended since after the first week of the two-week spring break period, when the global spread of coronavirus spurred the San Joaquin County Office of Education to order public schools closed until April 6.

Wednesday’s announcement left Holst and Lodi High athletic director Robert Winterhalter scrambling again to cancel games with other schools, cancel transportation with the district, and cancel referees.

Holst said even that return date is tentative.

“April 20, that gives baseball about three weeks, and none of these teams have been practicing,” Holst said. “This is probably more downtime than most of these guys have had, so you have to factor that in, too.”

It’s been an odd time for a lot of athletes. Some were hoping to add to their college recruiting resume with big junior or senior seasons. Others had things just getting started.

“We’ve just started a boys volleyball team. They played two games, and they’re stuck not being able to do anything,” Holst said. “It’s one of those things, we can’t do anything about it. We’re all waiting, trying to see if we’ll be able to do anything.”

The college recruiting aspect didn’t have him too worried, though. He said Tokay’s softball team has two players already committed to college teams.

“I think at the end of the day, you’ll get found,” he said. “If it was 1972 it would be more difficult, but you get found one way or another.”