Frustrated father sees effects from many angles

‘This latest update, you see hopelessness’

Through multiple lenses, Scott Harper has watched the effect COVID-19 has had on youth sports.

He is the father of three sons who have played or are playing high school football and baseball — a freshman at De La Salle in Concord, a junior at Campolindo in Moraga and a freshman at UC Davis.

And Harper coaches freshman football at Monte Vista in Danville.

“I have seen a pretty diverse group of athletes and teams that are dealing with it,” Harper said.

As with many who have participated in the Bay Area News

Group’s high school and youth sports surveys, Harper is frustrated.

Frustrated that athletes in California have been waiting for months to get started while kids in numerous other states played this fall.

Frustrated that a feeling of hopelessness is setting in among families after the update last week from the California Interscholastic Federation that the postponed start of the state’s high school sports calendar will be delayed even longer as administrators wait for guidelines from the California Department of Public Health.

“Everybody knew the case loads would increase around this time and it’s happened,” Harper said. “In hindsight, the games should have been played on schedule in August and Sep

tember and get it out of the way.”

The long delay has had an impact, Harper said.

“I’ve seen kids that I’ve coached or been around turn from being extroverts to introverts,” he added. “I’ve seen them kind of lose their passion for it. It’s been a big testament, an athlete’s passion, having to deal with it. That’s for sure.”

In his own home, Harper has seen the frustration build.

His oldest son, Grant,

threw for more than 5,000 yards the past two seasons at Campolindo. Now a freshman at UC Davis, Grant was home earlier this fall instead of on a field with his new teammates because Davis’ season is on pause until early spring.

“The first day of college games, he’s sitting there watching other colleges play and he’s not,” Harper said. “You could just see the anger build up.”

And what about Harper’s other two sons — Adam, a junior at Campolindo, and Jack, a freshman at De La Salle?

“T hey thought, OK, they’re going to get the January start and deal with

that,” Harper said. “From a coaching standpoint, I said, ‘OK, we can handle a January start.’ Gives us a few more months to get ready. This latest update, you see hopelessness from families.”

High school football teams in California were scheduled to start practicing this month and play their first games the weekend of Jan. 8. Now, the CIF says it doesn’t expect guidelines from state health officials until at least Jan. 1.

So everything is still on hold, and families such as the Harpers continue to train for a season with no start date or certainty that there will be one.

“I try to be as optimis

tic as I can,” Harper said. “‘Hey, guys, be patient. Take advantage of the downtime to train your bodies the best that you possibly can because when you do get on the field, you’re going to have a quick turnaround time because they’re both football players and baseball players. You’re not going to have that break between the two sports. You have to be in shape to handle that quick transition.’

“I still think there’s optimism that something’s going to happen, whether it’s a shortened season I don’t think players even care about the state issue or the regional playoffs. They just want to play the games.”