ESL sets deadline to cancel 5 sports

In a letter sent out Tuesday, Lindsay High School notified parents that the East Sequoia League set a deadline to cancel five sports seasons with the likelihood that football and volleyball would be canceled as early as next week.

“The East Sequoia League jointly agreed to cancel the following sport seasons if Tulare and Kings County have not moved into their respective tiers by the given dates below,” the letter stated.

Football and volleyball are orange-tier (moderate) sports that have a deadline of Monday, Feb. 8 to begin. Soccer, an orange-tiered sport, along with yellow-tiered (minimal) sports basketball and wrestling have a deadline of April 15.

For football and volleyball to have a chance, Tulare and Kings County would have to move from their current purple tier (widespread) position down two tiers to orange. The COVID-19 tier before orange is red (substantial).

The San Joaquin Valley Region’s Mariposa County is the only county in the state in the red tier. Trinity and Sierra County from the Northern California Region, and Alpine County from the Greater Sacramento Region are in the orange tier.

On Jan. 25, Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted all regional stay-at-home orders allowing sports

competition to begin if the county’s tier allowed that sport to be played. Since Tulare and Kings County are in the purple tier, only cross country, golf, tennis, swim and dive, and track and field are allowed to have competitions.

“Tulare County remains in the purple tier and it is highly likely that purple tier sports will begin competition in the next couple of weeks,” Lindsay’s letter reads. “For those sports in the red tier (baseball and softball), there is hope that the case counts will continue to drop so that these sports can play as currently scheduled starting in mid-march. For those sports in the orange and yellow tiers, there will need to be a significant reduction in Tulare County Cases between now and Mid March to have a season of sport.”

Lindsay added, “Please know your leadership, coaches and the East Sequoia League are working tirelessly to deliver opportunity for sport within the stringent guidelines of the State Department of Health. We highly recommend exploring opportunities in Purple and Red Tier sports at this time as they have a high probability to play this year. We will persevere!”

The ESL includes Lindsay, Strathmore and Granite Hills High Schools.