Area coaches make push for prep football to start
As delays to the California high school sports season continue due to COVID19, Bay Area football coaches, players and parents have grown impatient, frustrated and pessimistic about prospects of competition between now and June.
“They keep kicking the can down the road,” said longtime CampolindoMoraga coach Kevin Macy. “Everyone fears the next kick will be to punt the season.”
Macy was referring to local and state government officials and the California Interscholastic Federation, the state’s high school sports governing body, all of which have had a role in multiple attempts to resume prep sports — only to see another delay put in place.
In July, the CIF compressed the normal threeseason sports calendar (fall, winter and spring) into two, with fall sports
scheduled to resume practice early in December and begin competition the first week in January.
But new youth sports guidelines supplied by the California Department of Public Health in midDecember pushed back competition to at least Jan. 25. When new reassessments from the CDPH weren’t supplied last week as promised, frustration grew.
“We’ve been patient, trusted the process and the kids are still not on the field,” Serra coach Patrick Walsh said. “It’s been an uphill battle, we’re in the fourth quarter and we’re running out of time.”
And now they’re ready to take matters into their own hands.
Last month, Walsh created the Golden State HS Football Coaches Community, an advocacy group that hopes to have dialogue directly with Gov. Gavin Newsom or his office.
In less than three weeks, more than 600 coaches in the state have joined the group. Walsh and De La SalleConcord coach Justin Alumbaugh each gave impassioned 30minute introductions of the Golden State coaching group that appeared live on the 29,000member parentdriven Facebook group “Let Them Play CA.” More than 100 “Let Them Play” socially distanced rallies on high school campuses are planned for 4 p.m. Friday, including one at Campolindo, Macy confirmed.
“I’m really tired of seeing sad faces,” Alumbaugh said. “Our kids are struggling. Anxiety. Depression. I can’t go a week right now where I’m not hearing about a teen suicide in our area, and it breaks my heart.”
Adding to the ire of California coaches is that Louisiana and Georgia finished their respective high school football seasons the last week of December. That pushed to 31 the number of states that have completed their seasons and two more (Texas and Michigan) are scheduled to conduct state finals this month. (Five of the 31 halted their seasons without postseason play out of coronavirus concerns.)
Walsh and Alumbaugh, both of whom lead perennial state powers, emphasize that the group’s mission isn’t to win championships or secure recruiting tape, but simply to get teams in all sports on the field to improve athletes’ mental health. In the case of football, they say even a sixgame schedule would suffice.
Assuming they get a meeting with the governor or his staff, the coaches will come bearing data they say proves their sport can be played safely.
Alumbaugh, a math teacher, said respondents to a survey from Walsh’s group reported only five transmissions of COVID19 among more than 700,000 socially distanced workouts completed by players at 204 California football programs. All were contained, Alumbaugh said. He went on to say that more than 100,000 of those workouts involved coaches and that there was one reported transmission.
“That’s why this is all so frustrating,” Alumbaugh said. “What are we doing? We’re picking and choosing when science is convenient. … We know how to follow guidance. We are professionals. This is all I’ve done my entire professional life. We care about the kids. I don’t want a single human getting (COVID19). I don’t want to get it. I don’t want my children to get it. I don’t want my father to get it. I don’t want my wife to get it. But the evidence is stating that, and everyone that we’ve talked to, that these events, these athletic events, when they’re done following good protocol at schools … they are not these spreader events.”
Torrey PinesSan Diego coach Ron Gladnick, who has spearheaded the southern portion of the Golden State coaches group, told “Good Morning San Diego” last week: “Kids are being left in the dust. They are hurting. They need our help.”
He said that thousands of California kids are crossing state lines to play club football in Arizona and Nevada.
“We’re not allowing our kids to play while they cross state lines to comingle with other kids from other states before coming back home,” he said. “Someone from the governor’s office needs to explain to me how this is a good strategy.”
Club football is attracting new interest in California as well.
According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the Winner Circle Champions League, based in Corona (Riverside County), features 1,500 high schoolage players on 34 teams, two from the Bay Area (Xclusive Speed practices in Hayward and Cal Strength does so in San Ramon). Eighteen games have been scheduled for every weekend over the next two months. In March, organizers say a new season will start with commitments from 64 teams.
“I don’t begrudge club football,” said Walsh. “I understand why it’s being offered. At this point, I can’t support it. Clearly the right way to do this is playing high school football, which I believe is safe. I don’t want my kids leaving San Mateo County to go out of town or out of state to play. It feels like a last resort.”
Macy confirmed that at least one of his players has tested the club football scene, and many Campolindo parents have considered taking their kids out of state. One family was eyeing Massachusetts.
“We’re not even talking about recruitable kids,” Macy said. “These are parents of juniors and seniors who are very frustrated by the whole process and want their kids out and playing. As a high school coach, I don’t know how at this point I can stand in their way.”
Supporters of club football say it’s no different than any other club sport, such as basketball, volleyball, softball or baseball.
North Coast Section Commissioner Pat Cruickshank said that may be true, but said many in that field are not following social distancing protocols. He cited a November youth basketball tournament in Rocklin that the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health said could be traced to 77 positive COVID19 cases in that county alone.
“That’s part of the problem we’re in — people thumbing their nose at the guidelines and forging the rules (for) what’s best for them,” he said on Friday. “That’s kept us in the situation we’re in for as long as we have been.”
Cruickshank, a former high school basketball coach, has been frustrated by the delays as well, and is glad coaches are aligning.
Cruickshank was “disappointed” there was no state health department update last week “so we can start making some informed decisions rather than continuing to say ‘I don’t know,’ because I’m tired of saying ‘I don’t know’ to people.”
Without those health updates, the NCS board met once last week and “hopefully we’ll have some updated information” this week, said Cruickshank, noting that all options will be on the table, including switching Season 2 (spring sports) to Season 1 (current).
Under current guidelines, low risk/contact sports such as golf, tennis, cross country and swimming can go on in counties that are in the purple (widespread risk of virus) tier. Moderate contact sports, such as baseball, lacrosse and softball can be played in red (substantial risk) counties. Football, volleyball, wrestling and soccer are allowed only in counties that are in the orange (moderate) tier. Basketball and wrestling are allowed only in counties in the yellow (minimal risk) tier.
As has been the case for several weeks, 54 of the state’s 58 counties are in the purple tier. Three others are red and one orange; there are no yellowtier counties.
“While we all want to start on the 25th, we have to get out of the stayathome order for that to even happen,” CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti said. “As it stands now, until they change the date, our assumption is that on Jan. 25 those sports that are eligible in the purple can play sports.
“Everyone wants our studentathletes to get out there, but the numbers must head in the right direction first. The next several weeks will be very telling.”