High school sports are on the verge of returning to competition. Cross country has already started and girls tennis returned to the courts on Monday. Most of the other sports would be allowed to begin on Friday, depending on COVID rates in the areas in which the school is located.
The Information was given to media outlets on Friday during a press conference on Zoom, by CIF-SS Commissioner Rob Wigod. The CIF is rolling out sports based on a two-season schedule with sports such as football, cross country, girls volleyball and water polo running between January and April. Season two will run from March to June, with sports including baseball and softball, basketball, soccer, golf and boys volleyball. However, indoor sports such as basketball and volleyball would be required to play outdoors under current guidelines.
Guidelines require that in order for teams to begin practices and play games, the adjusted COVID-19 case rate must be equal to or lower to 14 per 100,000 residents in the county in which the school is located. Although, for now, once a sport’s season is underway, they would be allowed to continue even if the numbers rise back above 14 per 100,000, according to Wigod. As of Monday, Orange county was at 13 cases per 100,000.
“I’d like to be very hopeful and optimistic about those numbers,” Wigod said.
While sports are on the verge of returning, spectators are likely going to have to wait a little longer. The guidelines currently allow for only immediate family members of athletes to attend games. Wigod will be responsible for determining what “immediate family means.” Even though sports will be allowed to restart, it will also fall upon individual schools and districts to determine if they want to participate. Wigod said the CIF-SS would work with whatever decision schools make on which sports they will attempt to bring back.
“We’re going to respect those decisions, we’re going to support those decisions,” Wigod said.
While the State has allowed for the opening of education-based sports and the CIF-SS has set up parameters for reopening, there is still a lot of uncertainty of the best way to move forward. Los Alamitos High athletic Director Richard Smith said that the sports teams at Los Al that have been cleared to play are gearing up for competition.
Indoor sports such as basketball and volleyball would only be allowed to compete if they moved their games outside. Smith said that the idea was brought up during a Sunset League Athletic Director’s meeting but that it didn’t get far.
“There was not a lot of energy behind that,” Smith said.
Another hurdle would be testing for what are considered high-contact sports. Sports like football, water polo and boys lacrosse would be required to conduct weekly COVID-19 testing in order to compete. During the CIF press conference, Wigod indicated that the state was looking to make sure testing was available for all schools. Smith had not been informed of that, but said that the school was looking to make sure it could provide the tests since water polo was scheduled to begin next week. Football is scheduled to begin games starting March 12, with a hard deadline of April 17 to end the season.
