Local teams still working to get on the field

While Lodi Unified School District announced last week that its high school teams could start practicing as early as Monday, there are still no players on the fields in Lodi.

That’s because there are still a lot of t’s to cross and i’s to dot as local sports makes an attempt to come back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re still working on it,” said Tokay High athletic director Michael Holst. “There’s a handful of holdups, one of which is we need to get our kids cleared and get physicals, which a lot of our kids haven’t had done, and a lot of places barely started opening to get those.”

Holst also coaches Tokay’s football team, and said his team would have its first conditioning drills on July 8. Other teams on campus will have different schedules as they get student-athletes registered.

Helping things along was the Sac-Joaquin Section’s announcement earlier this week that it is waiving the summer dead period for fall sports, so fall teams can hold summer workouts right up to the first official day of practice, which is July 27 for football and Aug. 3 for the rest.

“I think it’s good. Even if let’s say fall sports do get started, it gives us a little bump,” Holst said. “Really there’s no reason to have it at this point, because nobody’s done anything. The only thing it would do is even the playing field, because some counties are allowing kids to use equipment and others aren’t.”

Holst said typically the most active sports during the summer are football, cross country, volleyball, basketball and baseball, though baseball tends to play games during the summer, which isn’t happening.

“If school athletic programs are able to practice, they can use summer rules until the start of the sports season,” the section’s press release said. “We are hopeful the season will begin on time, with the first practice for football on July 27 and for the remaining fall sports on August 3.”

As of Wednesday, Holst said he has four of his football players that have completed registration. The section reiterated Wednesday that it will make decisions about fall sports postseason play by July 20.

“I can’t imagine we’d put on helmets on July 27th and play football, unless COVID fell off the earth for some reason,” Holst said. “They’re deciding about the school year tonight, too, so that’ll come into play. We’ll see. We’re excited to get things going.”