High School Sports to Resume With Guidelines in California

High School Sports to Resume With Guidelines in California

California public health department lays down guidelines on Monday to resume the high school sports.

The state said that there would be an allowance for high schools to restart the sports. They must follow the state prescribed structure of the color-coded Coronavirus tier.

The sports will resume from next month, provided there will be on lockdown. The decision lacks certainty, but it gives hope to the high school sports circle. The inter-team tournament has chances to start from January 25.

The Athletic Director, Stevenson School, feels that the lack of certainty has been very troubling all this time.

Justin Clymo, the basketball coach, said that there are now problems but definitely better than uncertainty.

California was under the purple tier due to an increased number of Coronavirus patients. County allows conditioning with social distancing only on the campus.

The Department of Public Health, California, will decide on January 4 with a meeting if they will proceed with the plan of high school sports resumption.

Lockdown in Monterey till Jan 11

Monterey County is still in lockdown, and it will continue till January 11. The further decision on lockdown will depend on the contamination situation.

Athletic director Carmel says that as of now, there is some hope but subject to change. Football coach Golden Anderson said that he does not consider this plan as concrete.

The California public department of health put out posters saying that sports resumption can begin from January 25.

Tennis, golf, swimming, diving may start in Spring as high school sports

The spring in California hopefully will see tennis, golf, swimming, diving, tracks, and more for high school sports. The state will allow it even if it is in the purple tier if there will be not another lockdown.

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There’s a possibility from the California interscholastic federation allowing the fall session tennis and golf tournament of girls. The tournament was supposed to happen in July, but the Covid-19 pandemic caused a delay.

Tom Newton, the principal of Monterey High, said that Jan 25 is quite far. Anything could happen as the nature of the pandemic is unpredictable.

Restart for other sports event only possible if the number of cases decreases

If the county sees a decrease in contamination, it is possible that girls lacrosse, hockey, baseball, and softball could restart in the next two months. The restart can be from mid from as per the CIF.

Anderson said that California has been under the purple tier since July. There are still a lot of things to be taken care of. So, before proceeding with anything, they have to give a potential amount of thought to it.

Football and indoors high school sports could start soon 

If the state wants to allow football, basketball, water polo, soccer, boys lacrosse, and beach volleyball, it should come to the orange tier.

Orange tier means a low level of contamination than purple. Then again, only the yellow tier, which indicates minimal contamination, allows wrestling and indoor volleyball.

Rob Bishop, Athletic director of Palma, said that they could start conditioning with the highest of 14 players with this relaxation. They will practice for such sports which meet this number of players criteria. He had hoped that at the end of the year, they would surely get to play.

There’s still speculation if Football will take place in spring. Bishop said that he is hopeful contamination would decreases if vaccines reach people soon.

Rob Bishop believes that football season can take place sometime between February and April. But there will be no postseason. He is not sure what the situation will be like in that case.

The CIF had postponed all the sports for the fall season till December 14. But the date has already crossed, and no signs of resumption due to this pandemic.

High school governing body suspended any playoff for the fall season

California High School sports governing body has not permitted any playoff in state or region for the fall season. It is likely to be the same for high school sports too.

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The winter season of sports is apparently going to happen in March mid. It is yet to decide which supports will carry forward according to the county’s position in the color-coded tiers.

According to Lauralea Gaona, the athletic director of Pacific Grove High, they have to take necessary measures as time goes and more guidelines come locally.

There has been conditioning going on at Pacific Grove High for the last eight weeks on their campus. Now during holidays, there will be adopting distance methods for conditioning. The resumption of regular conditioning will start on January 18.

The interval in the conditioning will begin during the holiday. The Athletic programs are waiting for further decisions from state and Monterey County Health Department authorities.

Athletic director Anderson hopeful and motivated with new guidelines

Anderson said that people must follow necessary measures to return to the field. Getting back to the field must motivate their behavior.

Pacific Coast Athletic League finds it difficult to proceed with the actual schedule. There lies uncertainty when some sports will take place in the county.

The shorter season comes with the fact that teams living in the county’s boundaries get to play only. The PCAL  added schools from San Benito, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, and Monterey counties.

The CIF discussed further plans with commissioners from all sections in the meeting on Tuesday.

Bishop is apprehensive about how the Central coast section and the CIF impinge on the PCAL. He thinks it would look deviant.

Newton thinks all sports will restart when Monterey starts conditioning again. Newton said that they should wait until the next line of guidelines come. He hopes to have a positive and normal scenario.

Athletes must choose one sport to play to avoid contamination

California public health department advised athletes to participate in only one sport in the coming season when they resume. Therefore athletes must make their choices which sports to play this season.

Athletic director Clymo plans to have a constructive season with realistic measures abiding by the guidelines. He said that he was happy to witness the changed guidelines. Though it took long enough.

Despite the prohibition on many things, people still get to proceed with lots in sports at this difficult time.

Anderson thinks there’s hardly any hope to have basketball and football in the coming days. He feels thankful that at least more sports are there to go forward compared to last year. This is very motivating for all sports lovers.

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