Early indications are positive in polling which City Section teams will play football

The City Section has begun asking its 85 schools which ones intend to play football after the Los Angeles Unified School District gave approval to have a season.

Shane Cox, the City Section football coordinator, said he has received 19 responses via email, with 16 saying they will have a team. Schools have until Monday to provide a response. The teams saying yes are Reseda, Hawkins, Grant, Palisades, Fairfax, Venice, Carson, MACES, Granada Hills, Bernstein, Kennedy, Banning, Manual Arts, Canoga Park, Belmont and North Hollywood.

The City Section is proposing March 15 as the official start for practices.

Cox, who also serves as athletic director at Fairfax, said flexibility will be the key in navigating the sports season that has been twice delayed because of the coronavirus.

"We have to be flexible with the schedule," he said. "Every part of this requires flexibility. Everybody has to work together."

One issue is whether LAUSD will let schools play any games during spring break from March 25-April 2.

"My recommendation is instead of making arbitrary decisions they should give schools the option to play," he said. "Ask the school if you have supervision and the coach wants to play and the opponent wants to play, why not play? At Fairfax, we want to play spring break."

LAUSD athletic directors held a conference call Thursday to answer questions from district administrators on how to proceed. Testing will be a major emphasis. It is required weekly from students and coaches on campus.

Also City Section commissioner Vicky Lagos said the section will proceed with outdoors boys' and girls' volleyball.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.