The grim truth: Sacramento prep sports are on the brink. They might be canceled
The delays translate to the can getting kicked down the road.
That can is about to get stomped, like a boot to a bug.
I haven’t seen the can, but I know of its contents. It includes a heaping helping of hope wrapped by optimism. The theme is rooted in high school sports playing out in the winter with the plea that the COVID-19 cloud would disperse enough to allow kids a chance to experience what is supposed to be the time of their lives.
A party of some 815,000 in California remains on pause, idle and antsy. That’s the number of student-athletes who play prep sports. That number would exceed 1 million if factoring in those who participate in band, music, theater and anything else extracurricular.
Coronavirus pandemic concerns in July prompted the governing body California Interscholastic Federation to push the fall prep seasons into the winter. It was an effort to buy time to better prepare for a virus that spreads mostly through droplets from mouths and becomes a real concern in tightly packed areas.
But COVID-19 isn’t going away. It’s increasing in California, delaying the reopening of schools closed since March and putting others that have opened in hybrid form on notice while restaurants and businesses that support them are either reduced in capacity or closed again. The numbers have become concerning enough that the state has issued travel advisories — meaning: stay put — as California hits 1 million COVID-19 cases.
The grim reality is high school sports will not start on time in January. They may not happen at all. This includes the headliner of football, which has the most participants, the largest following and generally impacts a campus and a community the most.
If the seasons do start, will schools test competitors? Who pays for it? Will schools in affluent areas make it and those in struggling regions fall off? If no fans are allowed at events, will they watch through fences, or be ushered out of parking lots like so many trespassers? It figures to get more chaotic before it becomes calm.
Troubling trend nationally
For every argument that “the virus doesn’t kill kids” or that the virus has a high survival rate, county and health officials counter that it’s not wise to debate or deal with this virus. It does hurt, it does kill, especially preying on those with preexisting conditions, such as a teacher, or a coach, or a parent or grandparent at home.
The debate is over on the East Coast. The Ivy League a few days ago canceled all winter and fall sports. On this coast, the Northridge women’s basketball team opted out of its season, fearing COVID-19 outbreaks. The Pac-12 schedule has been littered with canceled practices and games. Same in other conferences across the land.
The NFL has had discussions of shortening the regular season. Can the NBA really start in a matter of weeks?
As Pleasant Grove High School football coach Matt Costa speaks for all high school coaches, any sport, when he said, “if we get any games in, it’ll be a victory. But will we get any games in?”
Right now, no. Does that can get kicked down the alley into the spring? Delays have become the slow torture of the inevitable.
Colored tiers and tears and tired of ‘We are close’
California was one of 15 states that moved fall prep sports into the winter of 2021. In California, what now adds to confusion is the state’s color-tiered system that gauges virus hot spots. On Tuesday, the state announced 13 of the state’s 58 counties graded out purple, meaning widespread COVID-19 numbers, 23 were red (substantial), 16 were orange (moderate) and six yellow (minimal).
The purple and red counties are the most-populated regions, including Los Angeles, the Bay Area and throughout the Sacramento area. California Health and Human Service Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly this week on a Zoom call said of releasing youth and high school guidelines for sports participation, “We are close. These are not easy to put together. There’s not just the competition issue, but there’s the conditioning issue. I hope that we find a way to hold on a little longer.”
He added, “We know that these are difficult times. We are working to make sure that we have solutions.”
Parents and coaches are tired of hearing “we are close.” It’s been “close” and “soon” for eight months now.
Part of the problem is, when it comes to prep sports, every state has different guidelines, and sometimes every region and district within those states differ. It won’t be the CIF that decides if local teams play. It will come down to each school district, perhaps each principal and athletic director, to decide.
Each of those officials is in it for the kids. Each will tell you that they will continue to rely on input and guidance from local county health departments.
Thirty-eight states played high school football this fall, none on the West Coast. Not all of it went without incident. Some teams were able to get in just two games. Teams in Florida, Mississippi and North Carolina had a rash of canceled games due to COVID-19 positive test results.
In Arizona this week, the Phoenix Union High School District canceled the remainder of football and all other fall sports due to soaring COVID-19 numbers. Their can got stomped.
Holiday gatherings could lead to pulled plug on prep sports
The problem is people. Some argue the virus isn’t about science as much as it is about politics. Masking up hasn’t been enough, not when people pack in at gatherings and lower or remove masks. And forks don’t go through masks well.
The COVID-19 spikes occurred after protests in the spring and summer. And the Fourth of July and then presidential campaign rallies. What looms are the holidays. It will be those expected COVID-19 spikes that will doom the prep sports seasons.
As many people who embrace the idea of doing Thanksgiving and Christmas with small numbers or through virtual means, even more may do what they please and pack into living rooms. Some families have not met since the pandemic swept in. They’re not about to let the governor’s office tell them who can come to dinner or not.
Mental health concerns
Coaches worry about the mental toll of their students. In Sacramento, Burbank boys basketball coach and athletic director Lindsey Ferrell said no sports means no outlet for teenagers. School becomes a drag when your entire day is reduced to staring at a screen for Zoom courses.
”I worry all the time,” Ferrell said. “This COVID is the worst thing that could have happened for everyone. Some of our students are struggling.”
Daniel Ward coaches football at Winters, a small school in Yolo County. He’s a graduate of the school. He knows what sports can do to a kid, its campus and its community.
”The mental health for our student athletes is at an all-time low,” Ward said. “They need sports now more than ever. We have 815,000 kids playing a high school sport, yet absolutely zero guidance from the governor and state in over three months when football practice is supposed to start in less than a month. I’m fearful that the state sets up a tiered system, allowing some counties to play and others not.”
And back to Costa, the Pleasant Grove football coach, on the theme that sports will be scrapped this academic year: “I’m already heartbroken for my guys, absolutely heartbroken.”
