CLOCK TICKING ON PREP SEASON
Bay Area coaches push for less restrictive reopening tier, more
What does Patrick Walsh do when his team is trailing late in the fourth quarter? At Serra High in San Mateo, that’s not often. But like any coach, he opens up the playbook.
In the battle for any kind of a high school football season this year, the clock is ticking. With the coronavirus still surging throughout California, it is likely to be close to six weeks before anything beyond cross country, golf, tennis, track or swimming is permitted, and possibly even longer for higher-contact sports, like football, according to health experts.
If statewide rallies kicked off their two-minute drill, then consider Walsh’s latest move a Hail Mary: an open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, which was delivered to the governor Tuesday evening and read aloud by Walsh on a livestream Thursday morning. Walsh, a leading proponent of returning to play in California, has previously requested meetings with state health officials but has been politely turned away each time.
With the hurdles it will take to play football in California this spring, Walsh and his growing community of 40,000-plus parents and coaches believe these moves are what it will take to save the season. They may not be wrong. But will it be enough?
Here’s the dubious situation
they find themselves in: Youth football is prohibited until a county has entered the orange reopening tier, meaning fewer than four daily cases per 100,000 residents. Even in the Bay Area, the daily rate is currently about 60 new cases per 100,000 residents; Los Angeles County has never exited the purple tier since the system was implemented in the fall.
Dr. George Rutherford, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC San Francisco, estimated it would be about six weeks before the infection rates in San Francisco are low enough to return to the orange tier, let alone harder-hit-regions of the state.
Even a March 1 start to the season would only provide six total weeks of play under the current rules. For next season to start on time, this season’s schedule would have to end by April 17. Walsh suggested extending the season to the end of May, and other coaches have expressed support for the idea. This week, the Los Angeles City section extended its spring season by two weeks, to the end of April, but LA County is even further away from reducing its cases enough to allow football under the current rules.
“The math does not add up to having a football season with much substance,” Walsh said.
For now, at least, some teams have begun to practice again, albeit in pods while wearing masks and doing little that resembles football. In the Central Coast Section, teams in all sports are permitted to hold practices, and the Oakland Section is expected to join them Feb. 1.
At Serra, Walsh’s practice pods have increased to 20 players. But they’re still only performing distanced conditioning drills. To do anything more will likely require action that is out of their hands: either loosening restrictions on football so it can be played in the red or purple tier, or a quick and drastic reduction in cases of COVID-19 in the community.
According to survey data collected by Walsh and the Golden State HSFB organization, which he runs, more than 1 million youth players have attended workouts over the past months with just 11 infections attributed to them.
On Tuesday, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the Secretary of Health and Human Services in California, said they were “working hard” with youth sports officials, including California Interscholastic Federation executive director Ron Nocetti. Almost three weeks since the state promised updated guidance for youth sports, it still has not come.
Meanwhile, Walsh is just waiting for the opportunity to make his case.