HIGH SCHOOL FALL SEASON IN QUESTION
The Sac-Joaquin Section invited its member schools’ athletic directors and administrators for a teleconference on Wednesday to share information, but the main information the section had was that there’s not a lot of information to give right now.
“I guess the frustrating thing is that I don’t think we have a lot of answers,” said Assistant Commissioner Will DeBoard. “You give us a date when we can practice, and we can give everybody a calendar. We’re not there yet.”
The main question the member schools had was about the status of fall sports, DeBoard said. The second-most asked question was about summer workouts.
“We’re kind of entering into Phase 2, and there’s a whole lot of moving parts,” DeBoard said. “We have 11 or 12 counties throughout the section. We’ve told them they need to consult with their county health officials, and their school districts. The section isn’t telling anyone you cannot do this, we’re just telling everyone to consult with their health officials.”
There was one big piece of information that Lodi High Athletic Director Robert Winterhalter noticed.
“I think the big take away is the primary goal: to have all three seasons of sport,” Winterhalter said via text. “Even if that means starting late and having shortened seasons.”
Winterhalter said the fall season and summer workouts will depend on a variety of factors.
“That will all depend on LUSD and the county. Even if the section gives us the go ahead, we need the stay-athome order to be lifted and school facilities to open back up,” Winterhalter said. “Then we can look at any additional restrictions that may be put in place: taking temperatures, number of athletes at practice, etc.”
DeBoard said the SJS Commissioner, Michael Garrison, has attended virtual meetings with the other section commissioners and the CIF office on a weekly basis, and the pace of reopening across the state could make things difficult.
“We want to all be on the same page, but that may not be possible if certain sections don’t have a big disease problems while others do,” DeBoard said. “We may even see that from one school district to another.”
Once the section gets direction on when gatherings are
back on, then it will begin putting together a calendar of sport.
“What we really kind of control is the calendar. If we’re told, OK, beginning of September you can start practicing, we’ll probably go four weeks after that and say that is when football can start,” DeBoard said. “We’ll build our calendar from there. That could mean a shorter regular season and shorter postseason.”