Where things stand for DAL, Benicia
Commissioner says he’s cautiously optimistic
Schools in the Diablo Athletic League can boast of winning state championships in recent years in cross country, volleyball and football, and Northern California championships in basketball, water polo and soccer.
So, naturally, the commissioner of the DAL, Pat Lickliss, is as interested as anyone to see how the next several weeks play out, and whether athletes in the league can once again try to compete for regional and state crowns — even in the face of a pandemic.
“I would say I’m cautiously optimistic,” Lickliss said. “As a former coach and school administrator, and now as a commissioner, I want these kids to play. I want them back in school and I want them to play. It was so tragic that the seniors lost out on their spring season last year.”
The DAL is one of the region’s largest leagues with 12 schools: Acalanes, Alhambra, Benicia, Berean Christian, Campolindo, Clayton Valley Charter, College Park, Concord, Las Lomas, Miramonte, Northgate and Ygnacio Valley.
Benicia, the only DAL school in Solano County, has had to deal with some unique challenges.
While most athletes in Contra Costa have been allowed by their districts to work out in small pods, athletes at Benicia were only granted permission by their school district late last week to begin conditioning in small groups, as long as they use outdoor facilities with cohorts and implement proper safety precautions.
That was vitally important, since Dec. 7 is the first day North Coast Section teams can begin official practices.
“Benicia’s a great addition to our league. They’ve been a perfect fit for us,” Lickliss said last week before BUSD granted its permission. “Their biggest concern is, are they going to be penalized? Let’s say for example, they can’t start practicing until later. Their concern is, are they going to be penalized in terms of potential playoff situations.
“I need to get (to the North Coast Section) and ask them
that. I am absolutely confident that our league will not penalize Benicia if they weren’t able to get in the same number of contests as say a school in Contra Costa County would. Our league is too tight.”
Lickliss spoke with Bay Area Preps HQ last week to address possible protocols, testing and what the return of sports might look like for the league’s schools. Here is some of what Lickliss said: (Some answers have been edited for brevity and clarity).
What are some of the challenges you see going forward?
“In essence, we’re having two seasons. You can call it winter and spring. I prefer to call it season one and season two because we’ve combined all sorts of sports. I’ve told some of the coaches, they’re going to have to pick and choose what they want to do. For example, we’re having golf and tennis, both genders, in season two in the spring season. I’ve been working with golf coaches just trying to figure out scenarios they can operate under because in many instances, you’ve got the same coach coaching both genders, and there’s only a finite number of golf courses.
“We had a Zoom meeting (Oct. 20) and I threw out some thoughts and ideas. I’ve got to commend the golf courses, they’re being really creative with how to make this work. We’re having another meeting Dec. 10 with the golf coaches, because by then, we’ll have a better handle as to what (the CIF) is going to allow. Tennis is much the same boat. There’s only a certain amount of tennis courts you can use. Again, in many instances, you’ve got the same coaches coaching both genders. It’s going to be a challenge, or I like to call it, an opportunity.
“The coaches and the (athletic directors) have been phenomenal working with me, coming up with schedules. We’ve done some revisions. You’re going to have a ton of sports in the second season, all using the same turf — lacrosse, track, soccer, baseball, softball — all operating in the spring season.”
You mentioned golf and tennis. What’s the concern level from football coaches that they’re not going to be allowed to have 50 or 60 players working out on the field at the same time? What are you hearing from football coaches right now?
“They’re working in pods right now. That’s what they can do. We’ll have to see what happens Dec. 7 if they can have full practices. That remains to be seen. I don’t think we can read the tea leaves on that one yet, at least from my perspective. We will have to wait to see what the state allows us to do. A lot of that’s going to come from the state department of education, the state health department and the various county health departments. Hopefully we’ll have a better handle on it after the CIF has its meeting in early December. Once they tell us, the section will tell the commissioners and we will tell the schools.”
Safety is going to be everyone’s top priority. Unless testing gets really inexpensive, it doesn’t seem like high schools be able to do a whole lot there. What can be done as far as prescreening and trying to make things as safe as possible?
“I think different districts are handling it in different ways. The nice thing is our league is very tight, and, and the ADs are in constant communication as to what each of the districts are allowing. Testing is not cheap. We’re looking at the possibility of kids going back into school in January.
“So I think the biggest thing to do is take temperatures, interview the kids, see how the kids are doing. That’s what happens when you go to the doctor right now, frankly. I’ve got two different gyms I go to. They take your temperature and ask you if you’ve been around anybody that’s been exposed to COVID, and that’s the extent of their screening. I think the schools will probably do something very similar to that. I go to two different gyms and they’re following the same (Contra Costa County) health department guidelines.”
Can you say what would happen if an athlete or a coach or someone in that circle would test positive?
“As a the principal, I found out that my football coach was testing positive, he’s going to be quarantined, and same thing with the players. It’s like what you see with college sports. You’ve got potentially athletes in quarantine, or coaches in quarantine.”
With your league’s schedule, do you have to be flexible if you have teams that suddenly can’t play?
“Everything since last March has been called flexibility. As we work through the season, if we have to shift around schedules, we’ll do that, As long as we don’t violate the section policy on the number of contests teams can be in or the number of practices and things like that, we’ll be as flexible as we possibly can be.
“It’s going to be a matter of my being in constant contact with the ADs, who are in constant contact with their coaches, and if we have to move things around, we’re going to. We’ve already done that. The schedule already has some minor tweaking to them because of availability of facilities. So the name of the game is flexibility and hopefully we can get back to some semblance of normalcy for the fall.”
The county would have the final say as to whether or not spectators are going to be allowed?
“At this point, everything I’ve heard is no (fans).”
How weird would that be for everybody?
“Well, it’s been working for college sports and baseball. I supposed we can get a bunch of cutout figures and put them in the stands for the football games. I can only imagine some of the schools being creative in that regard. We have no athletic contest on the DAL schedule until after the first of the year, so who knows what (it’ll look like) in January.”