Bay Area high school sports remain at a standstill
CCS and NCS commissioners share thoughts on prep sports restart
Bay Area high school sports administrators are trying to remain optimistic that teams can suit up for official practices in December.
But optimism waned significantly with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision last week to pause necessary guidelines county health officials have been waiting months to receive.
The California Interscholastic Federation and its 10 sections, including the Central Coast and North Coast sections, are at the state’s mercy as health officials grapple with the ebbs and flows of the coronavirus pandemic.
The CIF’S brief statement last week updating the status of high school sports reiterated the status quo, reading in part: “…The current guidance remains in effect, and the CIF competitions are not allowed until new guidance is provided.”
High school sports have been in the same holding pattern since this summer, when officials pushed the fall sports season — including football — to January due to the pandemic, hoping that further guidelines would be provided before practices start in December.
With that Plan B hitting a critical point — and possibly hanging by a thread
— there is no Plan C in the works.
“We’re on an airplane circling the runway,” Central Coast Section Commissioner Dave Grissom said by phone on Nov. 17. “When they can give us clearance to land, they will. It’s the same plan we’ve had since July.”
As officials see it, their only option is to wait, but how much longer can they?
The CCS has scheduled practices to begin on Dec. 14, a week later than the NCS. Football coaches have said it’s nearly impossible to prepare for practices and games — with new health protocols complicating typical planning — in this short of time.
Grissom and North Coast Section Commissioner Pat
Cruickshank say the failsafe date for some guidelines would be around Thanksgiving — only one week away.
Are they expecting an answer?
“I think (Nov. 16’s) press conference kind of extinguished some hope on that,” Cruickshank said in a phone conversation Nov. 17. “Obviously we’re still hopeful.”
“It’s so disappointing,” Grissom said. “At the same time, when they have a spike or surge in cases like they’ve seen, you have to understand it.”
With state health officials preoccupied by a sharp uptick in coronavirus cases, and the resulting reopening rollbacks, how can commissioners keep up optimism that the season will start as scheduled?
“What’s my other choice? No, seriously. We could choose to be glass-halfempty or half-full,” Grissom said. “I’m going to choose to be glass is half full.”
Sports remains in a stalemate, though Newsom did provide a hint of optimism in his press conference Nov. 16, saying he “signed off” on potential guidelines. But the changing circumstances have prevented California’s Health and Human Services Director Dr. Mark Ghaly from sealing and delivering them to the CIF.
“I’ve said a couple of weeks in a row it’s close, but again, we received things as recently as last night that we hope to get out soon,” Ghaly said. “But to the governor’s point about case rates going up very quickly, timing is everything with this.”
It’s a waiting game. It’s been a waiting game. Commissioners and league officials can only temper their exasperation with a hard dose of reality.
“We’re hopeful we’ll get there, but we need to take care of the safety of the entire population to move forward with anything, not just sports,” Grissom said.
The best they can do is continue to urge how important a return to sports is for restless high school kids.
An alliance of California coaches convened over Zoom this month to devise a plan to reach state health officials with their message that keeping kids away from sports in the age of coronavirus could be more dangerous than the risk of letting them play.
James Logan football coach Ricky Rodriguez, who helped spearhead the coaches alliance, said he was expecting some answers from Newsom in the Nov. 16 press conference.
“I was disappointed that the postponement of those guidelines will probably go through the start of our season in NCS,” Rodriguez said in a text message. “I think families, and players in particular deserve to know what we as a community, county, and state need to do, in order to return to competition.”
Cruickshank says he’s heard from many athletic directors, teachers and coaches within his section alarmed by students’ apathy in the classroom. Grades are declining and motivation is waning.
“We understand the importance of high school sports,” he said. “And I’m hopeful that those people making these decisions understand how much this means to kids and how important it is to their physical, emotional and mental health.”
Coaches, parents and student-athletes are making themselves heard. Ghaly estimated he’s received more than 1,000 emails about prep and youth sports’ restart. The risk assessment and logistical barriers involved in indoor and outdoor, contact and no-contact sports have been difficult for officials to sort through.
“We want to make sure that as we move forward with something as important as youth sports that we do it with eyes in front of us and hoping that we set it up for success so that as it happens,” Ghaly said. “We don’t have to stop it or pause it down the road.”
Obviously, the community’s health takes precedent. And even if they have to wait longer, officials believe there’s a clear upside to playing a season without the threat of game cancellations or delays.
Many teams have been conditioning since summer — in larger numbers than in any pre-pandemic conditioning portion of the year. Students may be sick of the conditioning monotony, but they’re getting a crash course in patience.
“We’re dealing with something we’ve never dealt with before,” Grissom said. “Being less than patient isn’t going to help anybody.”