DEALING WITH EVENT POSTPONEMENTS
Editor’s note: With the anniversary of Monterey County’s shelter-in-place order coming up Wednesday, we asked several of the area’s movers and shakers to reflect on how they felt when the order came down, what they thought we were in for and what surprised them in the ensuing months. This is the second in a series of articles on their reflections.
On March 5, 2020, the Sea Otter Classic, the cycling festival held at Laguna Seca that draws participants from around the world, made the call to postpone the April event, citing growing coronavirus health concerns among international sporting events.
It was to be the beginning of a wave of schedule changes and, for many sporting events, cancellations as a result of COVID-19.
As the home of major motorsports and running events, Monterey County was hit particularly hard. And like in many other areas across the country, school athletics was also hit hard as entire seasons were postponed or canceled.
Doug Thurston
The Big Sur International Marathon is considered a “bucket list” race for longdistance runners around the world. Each year, thousands of runners descend on the Monterey Peninsula the last weekend in April to participate in the marathon or one of the many other running events that weekend.
At the time of the Sea Otter Classic announcement, the marathon wasn’t quite ready to make the call on the race scheduled for a few weeks after the Sea Otter Classic, but race director Doug Thurston was also watching things carefully.
“I attended two marathons in March in Napa and Los Angeles,” Thurston said. “The one in LA (March 8) had a surreal feel to it. We felt something was coming. We had thought the virus might be restricted to Asia. No one was wearing masks.”
Less than a week later and just a few days before the shelter-in-place order came down, the Big Sur International Marathon announced it would be postponing the race. “Our first plan was to combine the marathon with our November halfmarathon race weekend,” Thurston said. “But we realized in June it wasn’t realistic.”
Likewise, the Sea Otter Classic that was rescheduled for October was canceled.
The board of the Big Sur International Marathon,
a nonprofit organization, decided to suspend most of the foundation’s operations until permits for large events are available in Monterey County.
“Marathons are an event where people are breathing on each other and celebrating. It’s not like being in a stadium,” Thurston said. “We hope to come back in April of 2022 with our marathon weekend.”
John Narigi
When John Narigi was awarded the bid to manage the Laguna Seca Recreation Area and the world-famous race track there before the 2020 season, he had no idea the challenges that lay ahead.
Weather Tech Raceway has hosted many high-profile motorsports events, including the Indy Car series finale in 2019. Narigi was looking forward to a challenging, but successful 2020.
“Like so many others, my initial thought was that this flu would pass quickly,” Narigi said. “But when we had a major automaker media program cancel from outside the states due to the evertightening travel restrictions, that’s when I realized the long-term implications and severity confronting the community.”
Motorsports events were canceled or rescheduled. When the track was allowed to host major races again, fans weren’t allowed.
“Fans are resilient and are expressing their intent on returning this year, although ticket sales are understandably tracking behind 2019 and to date, we don’t have clear direction on spectator capacity, if any,” Narigi said. “Corporate hospitality is another matter that will take longer to redevelop.”
Narigi said they are seeing an uptick in companies expressing a desire for the IMSA and Indy Car weekends in September.
“And our Rolex Reunion in August has strong interest pacing ahead of 2019. It will be certainly different in overall guest numbers this year, but this is encouraging news for local businesses that there is an intent to return and bring business back to Monterey.”
In the meantime, the track was used for other purposes, such as hosting socially distanced high school graduation ceremonies. Narigi says the track is working to host graduations again this year.
“It has been the most challenging 12 months of my 28-year career on the Peninsula. But the entire team has pulled together with passion, expertise and optimism. That’s the fuel that is driving me right now.”
Golden Anderson and Al Avila
Golden Anderson, Carmel High School’s athletic director and head football coach, remembers being in a school planning meeting March 12 when he was asked if athletics should continue.
“I told them if you don’t want people together, we shouldn’t be practicing or playing. We closed the school on the 13th.
“As a parent, I wanted to make sure my family and kids were safe,” Anderson said. “We took it seriously to help flatten the curve. I used gloves at the gas station. We ordered our food to the house. We stayed home. I’m not a germaphobe. But I found myself acting like that. I had no inkling how long this would last.”
Although it became apparent that the spring sports season would be canceled, there was some hope sports would resume in the fall. When that didn’t happen, there was talk sports would resume by December. Some schools were hosting athletes on campus for socially distanced conditioning.
“I hoped by September it would be better,” longtime Seaside High football coach Al Avila said. “You’re still holding out hope. Each phase gave us a little hope, then a setback. I can’t believe it has been a year that we’ve been locked down.
“The first thing I did was contact my players and coaches and try to keep them encouraged. As coaches, we kept meeting on Zoom all the way until November breaking down film. It gave me a little sense of normalcy. I wasn’t scared myself. I was more worried about my kids and grandkids. It’s always about the people you love. I’ve been afraid to go around my grandkids and hug them.”
The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District said last month that Seaside High and other schools in the district will not participate in the abbreviated spring football season.
“I remember when we first went into shelter in place, someone told me we won’t be back until next year,” Avila said. “I said, ‘You’re crazy.’ Now I’m just hoping we’ll be back in school and on the football field in August.”