Concerns over coronavirus continue to impact high school state basketball tournaments.
Riordan, Lincoln forced out of tourney, but top seed Sheldon might return
Archbishop Riordan and Lincoln of San Francisco are out of the CIF boys basketball playoffs, but top Open seed Sheldon of Sacramento might be back in as officials attempted to maneuver through the uncharted waters of the coronavirus threat.
Riordan withdrew from the Division I tournament
Monday because a student at the school tested positive for coronavirus.
Later in the day, the San Francisco Unified School District notified the CIF that second-seeded Lincoln of San Francisco would not be allowed to play its Division IV regional final against No. 8 seed Bradshaw Christian because a parent of a student at Lowell, a school in the district, tested positive last week. Friday, the Menlo School
girls team withdrew because of a coronavirus issue at its school.
Across the bay, Sheldon, the top seed in the boys Open division which withdrew from the tournament on Saturday, might not be done after all. Sunday, after Sacramento city leaders got involved, the Elk Grove Unified
School District asked the CIF if Sheldon could be reinstated.
Monday, Dublin officials were told by the California Interscholastic Federation to prepare as if it will play host to top-seeded Sheldon in a boys semifinal tonight, though the rescheduled matchup still was not official at the deadline for this publication. (Go to mercurynews.com for the latest on this developing story.)
“They still have to clear the two hurdles — the county health signing off that the tests are negative
and that the district is going to reinstitute activities such as sports at Sheldon High School,” Dublin athletic director Tim Sbranti said Monday afternoon.“We’re waiting on that.”
The Riordan news came two days after the San Francisco private school’s semifinal home game against fourth-seeded De La Salle was postponed to Monday to give Riordan more time for the student’s test results.
The Concord school will now advance to play at home tonight against seventh-seeded Campolindo for the Northern California Division I championship and a spot in the state title game Friday night at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
“I feel for all of the Riordan seniors,” DLS coach Justin Argenal said. “They’re really talented, they’re tough. They have had an unbelievable season. Myself and our coaches and our players wanted to play them and we feel really bad about the situation. But obviously it is out of their hands.”
As the top seed in Division I, Riordan was considered the sixth-best team in NorCal going into the playoffs, behind the five teams chosen for the Open Division.
The Crusaders, led by senior guards Je’Lani Clark and Bryce Monroe, claimed a share of their first West Catholic Athletic League championship in 13 years and sizzled through the first two rounds of the CIF playoffs after being upset by St. Francis in the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs.
“They were excited about playing last night, on a group text with each other,” Riordan coach Joe Curtin said. “Telling the guys to be locked in and ready to go. To hit them with the news this morning, it was really hard for them.”
“To not have that shot as the No. 1 seed, they should have to go through you to move on. That’s what hurts.”
And removes the integrity of the bracket for all.
“The integrity’s not there,” Curtin said. “You lose the two No. 1 seeds in Open and D1, so people advance just by default. It doesn’t seem right. It’s like there should be an asterisk there. It doesn’t seem to be the fair and right way to go about ending this tournament. You can’t have the No. 1 seed in Open and the No. 1 seed in D1 not play. You just can’t do it.”
The potential Sheldon/ Dublin matchup is pending more information from the school district.
The Sacramento Bee reported Monday that a grammar school student in the Elk Grove Unified School District tested positive for coronavirus but that a high school student in the district had a negative test for the virus.
“I think from the CIF standpoint, they canceled Menlo and O’Dowd the day of and they canceled De La Salle-Riordan the day of, so I think they’re of the mindset let’s see what happens,” Sbranti said of the decision Saturday to withdraw. “We’re pretty firm that we need to have some assurance and we need to get something in writing from Elk Grove Unified saying there are no issues and they’re reinstituting activities, which would include basketball.”
The Dublin-Sheldon semifinal was originally scheduled for Cosumnes River College on Saturday night. But when the Elk Grove district announced earlier Saturday that it was shutting down operations for the week, including athletics, because of coronavirus concerns, Sheldon was removed from the tournament.
Friday, the Menlo School girls team withdrew because of a coronavirus issue at their school. Menlo was scheduled to play at Bishop O’Dowd in a Division I quarterfinal. The game was postponed but eventually canceled.