Santa Clara Co. allowing kids to play multiple sports
Santa Clara County public health officers have agreed to let student-athletes participate in high school and club sports simultaneously this spring as part of loosening COVID-19 restrictions.
But they seemed to send mixed messages this week about what is allowed, leading to more confusion Thursday night for the youth athletics community lobbying to get kids back on the field.
“There is a lack of followthrough on what is said and what is done,” said Mike Wharton, a Santa Clara youth sports parent. “Families are making decisions on what is coming out. Without that clearly stated, it makes it difficult to understand what you can do.”
Instead of announcing the policy change in a written statement, it came during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. Then, updated guidelines released Thursday night did not address the change, saying sports should be restricted to one cohort.
A Santa Clara County official said Thursday the confusion stems from California Department of Public Health restrictions on cohorts, which are recommendations and not orders. While county officials are allowing participation in multiple activities the state strongly recommends people limit gatherings to one team.
The policy change did not surface until when Dr. Sara Cody, the county’s public health officer, told board members that kids will be allowed to play on more than one team for outdoor sports.
Her answer came in response to a question from board president Mike Wasserman, who said he had received a “ton of inquiries” from people who played high school and club sports.
“For outdoors only, people can play for more than one team,” Dr. Cody said. “I think we got that clarified several weeks back but just clarifying again that is correct.”
But a county announcement Thursday updating the COVID-19 policy referred to state guidelines in a section addressing youth sports. The state continues to recommend participation by athletes and coaches during practice and competition be limited to one team and “refrain from participating with more than one team over the same season or time period.”
Wharton, who coaches Little League and youth football, said he wrote to Wasserman on Thursday asking for clarification. Wharton said the supervisor suggested county officials did not have enough time to reflect the change when sending out the updated guidelines.
Wharton said he read through the guidelines three times.
“There is nothing in there that gives you any assurance that it is
OK” to play on multiple teams, he said.
Central Coast Section commissioner Dave Grissom, whose office governs high schools in Santa Clara County, said Friday that he planned to tell member schools that it will be up to them to enforce the guidance about playing on two teams simultaneously.
“Our position is we have constitution and bylaws that we’re required to follow,” Grissom said, noting that the California Interscholastic Federation, the state’s high school governing body, has suspended the rules that disallow student-athletes from playing high school and club sports at the same time.
“While the CDPH strongly advises that kids are on one team, according to CIF rules, kids can be on multiple teams and that is for schools to enforce how they wish.”
Grissom said a league commissioner had told him about Dr. Cody’s comments at the board meeting this week.
“I finally got enough pushback yesterday,” Grissom said, “that I sent an email (to the County) that was basically titled, ‘Old Question. This is a question that you’ve already answered, but I think I need to ask it one more time.’ That was, ‘Can kids play on a club team and a high school team?’
“I get the response back late yesterday afternoon and all it says is here is the most recent guidance, and I say, ‘Wait a minute, this is the CDPH guidance.’ I could almost recite to you what the CDPH guidance. Why not answer the question?”
Grissom isn’t the only one wondering about that.
The confusion began Feb. 12 when CCS executives alerted member high schools in Santa Clara County that their athletes were prohibited from competing on two teams based on a county guideline.
The CIF had announced two days earlier it would waive its rules for the remainder of the academic year on the issue of playing high school and club sports at the same time.
While the CDPH youth sports guidelines said athletes should stick to one cohort or sport, state officials said they would not require the CIF to follow the recommendations.
However, Santa Clara County officers, who have enacted some of the country’s strictest coronavirus regulations, told high school officials at the time that they would follow state public health department guidelines.
If county officials changed the policy “several weeks ago” as Dr. Cody said, people in the youth sports community were unaware of it, a few said Thursday.
A statement to the Bay Area News Group on Feb. 12 from county officials said they were prohibiting kids from playing on two teams to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in youth sports.
“For the same reason, the county does not allow youth to participate in multiple cohorts at one time for extracurricular activities, regardless of whether those activities are athletic or non-athletic,” the statement read.
“This rule is designed to limit intermixing and reduce the spread of COVID-19 so that children can safely return to school. That is the County’s top priority for youth.”
This is not the first time county officials have left high school sports administrators, coaches and athletes confused.
In late January, county officials angered the youth sports community by mistakenly telling school superintendents that they would restrict groups to stay at least 25 feet apart. Such a rule would have effectively stopped participation in almost every sport.
A day after the announcement, county public health officers said they would abide by the state’s guidelines on social distancing on the fields of play.
Nelson Gifford, Palo Alto High’s football coach and athletic director, said Friday he is happy that kids won’t have to choose one sports team over another.
“High school sports start and they don’t want to back out of either group,” Gifford said. “Being able to follow through with that, it’s wonderful. It’s great for the kids. If the kids are happy, I am happy. I don’t care how we got it.”