San Mateo district is about to test waters
It will allow athletes to use school fields under strict guidelines
In terms of normal high school sports activities, call this the first baby step.
For four weeks beginning June 8, San Mateo Union High School District athletes have been cleared by the district to condition on school tracks and fields under a coach’s supervision while following strict county health guidelines.
• No more than a group of 12 working with a single coach.
• Temperature checks before workouts.
• No switching groups. “This is not driven by our superintendent (Kevin Skelly) wanting the six schools in the San Mateo Union High School District to leap to the forefront
of their respective sports,” Aragon football coach and athletic director Steve Sell said Thursday. “It is all about the kids getting out and getting some exercise.”
Since coronavirus restrictions went into effect more than two months ago, student-athletes in the San Mateo district have sheltered-in-place like peers across the Bay Area, patiently waiting for the OK to do more than video conferencing.
Some details of the San Mateo district’s plan are still being hashed out, and the workouts will be a challenge to execute, given that athletes from all sports will have to be placed into small groups and scheduled into 1 to 8 p.m. slots because the public can schedule use of the tracks from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.
But coaches said they are relieved the students will be doing something.
“I can’t even measure the value,” San Mateo football coach and athletic director Jeff Scheller said. “We’re doing what probably most other schools are doing. Football-wise, we’re Zoom meetings, Hudl messaging. You can get some things done, and it’s constructive. But at some point, kids just start falling off.
“They’ve been sitting around doing nothing for two months, and that’s dangerous, no matter what sport they’re in.”
Given the length of inactivity by many athletes because of shelter-in-place, Hillsdale football coach Mike Parodi compared the upcoming workouts to the first day of PE class and not a training camp for an upcoming season.
To him, that’s perfectly OK.
“I support that our district is looking at ways to try to make it that kids have a purpose for that day, that hour or whatever the case may be, keeping the light at the end of the tunnel being athletics,” Parodi said, referring to an eventual season. “It’s going to happen. We just don’t know where, when, why, how yet.
“But at least we can get them out of the house, get them back to their bodies being healthier.”
In a Zoom video conference with his assistants Wednesday, Parodi said he told them that his goal was to provide a form of physical activity that the kids will enjoy.
“Football to me right now is a secondary-byproduct of what we’re going to do,” Parodi added. “We might use football to have fun and get moving. But I told them Xs and Os are the least of my concerns right now because who knows when we’re going to be playing
football anyhow.
“Sitting there stressing about how to play Cover-2 right now when we don’t even know when football is going to start is just not relevant.”
Sell said he ordered a thermometer Thursday, adding that he is thankful the workouts are not starting right away.
“To try to get this organized and communicated to everybody involved is going to be a challenge,” he said. “I am glad we’re doing this. I am happy for the kids. I am happy for the coaches, to get out and see the kids. But at the same time, logistically, this is going to be very challenging.”
Beyond the logistics, Sell said, he’s concerned about coaches who might be more vulnerable to contracting the virus and students who come from multi-generational homes.
“There’s a lot of things I am worried about and rightfully so,” Sell said. “But at the same time, we are going to do everything possible to mitigate the risks so these kids can start participating. Balancing the risk of the virus and balancing the risk of kids staying sheltered, that’s a debate that can go on and on.”
The decision to loosen the restrictions has given hope that other districts might do the same.
“Somebody had to be first,” Saratoga football coach and athletic director Tim Lugo said. “Bless Kevin Skelly’s heart. He did the right thing for kids in his community, and it’s going to be easier for other superintendents to say yes now that they’re not the first.”
In the meantime, coaches are doing what they can.
Valley Christian football coach Mike Machado held his team’s spring practice on a computer screen. With restrictions still in place, video conferencing was all he could do.
“I’ll chalk talk every day if I have to,” Machado said. “Just to make sure we know what we need to do once we hit the field.”
The unknown is what Serra football coach Patrick Walsh struggles with the most.
He put himself in the mindset of the rising seniors, remembering how he might have felt if faced with a similar crisis going into his senior season at De La Salle nearly three decades ago.
“I can’t imagine sitting in the same room in May or June of 1992 pondering these issues,” said Walsh, a record-setting running back in the famed program and 1993 class valedictorian. “The level of angst and anxiety and sorrow that I would be feeling in my room at that time, wondering if I would be able to play my senior year, would be life-altering.”