No Friday night football in SLO County this fall. CIF postpones fall sports due to COVID-19
Friday night lights will be dark this fall after the continuing coronavirus pandemic forced the California Interscholastic Federation to postpone the fall high school sports season.
Instead, the CIF announced Monday, the start of fall sports will be moved to December or January, including the football season. The fall sports will run concurrently with the winter sports, which likely will force multi-sport athletes to choose which to play.
Like elsewhere in the state, San Luis Obispo County high school athletes saw their spring seasons cut short at the end of last school year and will now weather a longer delay before competition may resume.
“It is anticipated that most section start dates will commence in December 2020 or January 2021,” the CIF announced in a news release. “We are continuously monitoring the directives and guidelines released from the Governor’s Office, the California Department of Education, the California Department of Public Health, and local county health departments and agencies as these directives and guidelines are followed by our member schools/school districts with student health and safety at the forefront.”
Besides football, fall sports that will be put on hold include girls golf and tennis, cross country and girls volleyball, among others. That comes on top of the spring seasons canceled last year for baseball, softball, boys golf, and track and field.
The CIF said it was the first time in about a century that high school sports had been canceled statewide.
School closures affect class, sports
Most California schools are closed for on-campus instruction under a mandate by Gov. Gavin Newsom due to the ongoing pandemic.
As of Monday morning, COVID-19 had caused 7,697 deaths among the nearly 389,000 confirmed cases in California. The CIF said it had no choice but to delay the start of seasons by pushing the sports calendar into 2021.
CIF Director Ron Nocetti has been in regular contact with each of the 10 section commissioners across the state, including the Sac-Joaquin Section that includes the extended Sacramento region.
In recent weeks, section commissioners and school superintendents grew to believe and understand that the COVID-19 pandemic was too risky to proceed with normal on-campus instruction.
With no on-campus studies, few thought it made any sense to have on-campus sports. That was the case in March when the CIF canceled the state basketball championships at Golden 1 Center as the virus grew into a pandemic. Spring sports were canceled weeks later.
The abrupt end to the spring sports season cut short the state championship run of the Arroyo Grande High boys basketball team, among the other teams and players who were disappointed as the virus wiped out their seasons.
“We’re definitely saddened and disappointed to not have the opportunity to compete,” said Stephen Field, the school’s athletic director in March. “We worked so hard to get to this point. We do understand and respond this decision on the health and safety. ... But the biggest thing is we couldn’t prouder of the boys’ basketball program.”
Adjusting to new season schedules
Coinciding with the announcement, the CIF-Central Section, the body that administers SLO County high school sports, released its modified 2020-21 sports schedule, which lays out projected start dates for the various sports.
Barring any future changes, football, cross country, water polo and volleyball will all be allowed to start practice on Dec. 14. The first games for football will be Jan. 7.
Dec. 28 will be the first contests for the other fall sports.
Spring competition will include 12 sports — basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, golf, softball, swim and dive, track and field, wrestling, lacrosse, badminton and competitive sport cheer.
Each of those sports will begin their seasons with the first games in March. The last league games will commence in May or early June in the spring competition.
SLO County football coaches comment
SLO County football coaches supported the decision and emphasized the need to keep students safe.
“The first priority is getting students back into school and adjusted to the new school year,” said Don Crow, Templeton High’s football coach. “Then we can start getting ready for sports.”
Crow said the team will start practicing when it’s really cold, versus the typical 100-degree weather in the summer start.
“We’ll be practicing over winter break, which is typically what basketball or winter sports do,” Crow said. “But we’re excited about a start date.”
Crow said that his players will be doing their own individual workouts to get stronger in advance of the season.
“There won’t be as much conflict with sports like football and basketball, though the football season could leak into the start of basketball with football playoffs,” Crow said. “But there will be some tough choices about whether to play basketball and baseball. Also, some student-athletes will be allowed to play on their club and high school teams for soccer, for example. That’s giving coaches a lot of angst.”
Crow acknowledged the seasonal schedules could be in flux depending on coronavirus spread and the public health conditions come winter.
Arroyo Grande High’s football coach Michael Hartman said a target date, however, means he’s “excited for our players that they will be able to compete on the field representing their community and their school.”
“I know that many of them had their spring seasons cut short and they can’t wait to be back out there with their teammates,” Hartman said.
Hartman added student-athlete safety “is always our number one priority.”
“We will of course defer to people more well versed in determining when that will be,” Hartman said. “The goal of this move by the CIF is to allow more time for us as a community and as a society to move forward safely so that we can all experience the great benefits of many aspects of our lives, including high school athletics.”
Another head football coach, SLO High’s Pat Johnston, said that having a few months to get ready for the season will be helpful.
“At least we get to play football, which will be amazing for all the kids who have been waiting for this,” Johnston said. “I’m gad we know a few months ahead of time. It will allow our kids to get their body and mind right going in.”
Athletic director weighs in on scheduling, facilities
Sam DeRose, Atascadero High’s athletic director, said that careful planning will have to be done to make sure that the practice facilities and venues for games aren’t conflicting.
He said that some sports that typically don’t conflict may need some of the same facilities for practice or games and the timing of those uses will need to be worked out.
“It’s something we’ll be talking about without the league and coordinating on our campuses,” DeRose said.
But DeRose said the main thing is to get to a place where students are back on campus, and then start worrying about the logistics of athletics.
“We don’t know yet how this all is going to play out for sure,” DeRose said. “I’m glad there’s a (sport) schedule now to work off of.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 11:05 AM.
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