Move indoor sports outside? A different set of challenges
‘Court’s a little dirty ... you slip more ... there’s volleyballs flying over’
SARATOGA >> Beneath hundred-foot trees that shade the sidelines, the boys from Leland and Gunderson high schools play in a game that may resemble street pickup basketball but counts in the standings.
The outdoor setting at Saratoga High, miles from either team’s campus, is unlike any other for prep sports in the Bay Area, and it’s born out of necessity.
Teams in boys and girls basketball and boys volleyball at six San Jose high schools are competing in a roundrobin schedule played exclusively at Saratoga High’s outdoor sport courts — a unique, if at times frustrating, solution engineered by Pioneer High’s boys coach and athletic director, Joe Berticevich, after the district declined to provide the testing required to play indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A whistle blows and play stops. There’s no travel, turnover or errant pass out of bounds. For the fourth time this half, a volleyball from the adjacent court has to be tossed back across the strip of artificial grass that separates the two courts.
Berticevich was concerned about the wind. He’s learned there are more complications that come with putting on an
outdoor league.
“It’s essentially the same thing, except it’s hot and I’m sweating, the court’s a little dirty and you slip more, the rims are a little louder … and there’s volleyballs flying over,” Berticevich said. “It’s something that when you grow old and you can say, ‘Yeah, I played in an outdoor league.’ So it’s a good story.”
Leland won this one running away and is Pioneer’s top competition for the rare claim to an outdoor league title. Pioneer tied for the Santa Teresa Division title last season and was set to move into the upper division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League until the pandemic struck. Leland competed in the upper Mt. Hamilton division last season but only won one game; Willow Glen, which won five games in the Mt. Hamilton last season, lost its most recent game to Pioneer, 74-56.
Many schools utilized outdoor spaces to practice during the pandemic, but the San Jose schools are believed to be among only a small percentage nationwide playing games outside of their traditional gyms. Other Bay Area schools, such as James Logan and De La Salle, have gone outdoors to get wrestlers on the mat. Most schools provided testing and eventually played basketball indoors.
On this 90-degree day, Leland coach Drew Petiti would have preferred to press Gunderson more, but he said the late-afternoon heat prevented their normally aggressive style of play.
There is no shot clock — a departure from CIF rules — so possessions can drag on, Petiti said.
“You don’t want to get into a (habit) where you’re running 45 seconds off because that’s not realistic,” he said. “Fortunately we’ve got 13 guys and can sub people in but it’s very difficult because it’s hot. … But I mean we didn’t even know we’d be playing, so we’re just happy to be doing this.”
If there’s one chief complaint among players, it’s not the wind, the heat or the sun that adds another obstacle for anyone shooting into the west end hoop — it’s the court surface. On many mornings, Berticevich makes an early stop at Saratoga — about 10 miles west of Pioneer’s campus — to spray down the court ahead of that day’s games.
It’s no blacktop and certainly no hardwood but rather a synthetic material laid on top of cement, which players say doesn’t offer the same traction. Two officials have either aggravated old injuries or suffered new ones, said Tony Ortega, the assigner for the league.
Fortunately for the players, despite the slipping and sliding, the only casualty so far has been their sneakers.
“We got new shoes and two games in, they’re already trashed,” said Leland junior Ethan Aumack, who named the sun as his biggest challenge playing outdoors. “You’re going one direction, and the sun’s in your eye, then you go in the other direction and the sun’s not in your eyes.”
Teammate Tommy Streete interrupted to dispute Aumack’s claim.
“Either that or the court. It’s super slippery,” Streete said. “It’s a different ball game. We’re so used to gripping on the court, and we can’t grip out here.”
Built in 2008, the courts at Saratoga have been a serendipitous solution to a number of pandemic problems. Saratoga’s athletic teams had been training on the two-court complex until they got approval to go inside.
Not long afterward, Berticevich reached out about renting them for the six San Jose schools.
Their renewed utilization put resurfacing the courts on athletic director Tim Lugo’s priority list, though he said he doesn’t expect any public funding.
The only rental fee Saratoga is charging the San Jose schools, Lugo said, is the cost of maintenance with the additional use.
Berticevich’s long-standing relationship with Lugo, who used to coach at Pioneer, and Ortega, the officiating assigner, paid off when it came time to pull off a league at the last minute.
Berticevich said he called up Lugo and arranged the sport-court deal “within 24 hours.”
Within a week and a half, a league was formed with teams from six schools — though only three in girls basketball — and an actual slate of games. The schedule’s only been changed, oh, six or so times since then, Berticevich said.
“When you put a league together in a week and half, you’re going to have some scheduling issues,” he said. “I think we’re on version seven.”
The plan was originally to alternate sports between courts, but the supposedly temporary volleyball nets proved too resilient and the net became a permanent fixture, forcing basketball games onto a single court. Some schools with enough turnout fielded a second team. Others, especially on the girls side, didn’t get enough interest to participate.
Paul Williams, in his first season as the girls varsity coach at Lincoln, said he only agreed to join the league because he wanted to ensure his team stayed safe. Williams faced COVID-19 head-on working for the past year and a half in the critical and intensive care units at a local hospital.
“November, December, January were not fun,” Williams said. “It was scary. You think about your family. So that’s why I gave great pause when the ADs started talking about basketball. … Vaccines have rolled out since then, so we’re in a much better spot.”
As a result, Williams’ team is as dedicated to masks and hygiene as any out there. His daughter, Laia, a freshman, said her biggest concern was other teams’ more lackadaisical attitude.
“The basics of the game are still the same, but the little things like how close they are to us is something we’re always considering,” she said. “And the floor itself, we’re falling left and right. And we’ve got the sun in our eyes half the time.
“It’s a little messy, but we’re trying to make it work.”