CIF Southern Section Commissioner Rob Wigod is continuing to plan for the return of high school sports. (File photo courtesy CIF Southern Section)
Recent surges in coronavirus cases throughout Southern California, the state and the nation are posing even more challenges for CIF Southern Section Commissioner Rob Wigod who remains committed to leading the way for the return of high school sports.
High school sports have been on hold since March when the pandemic broke out.
Wigod and his staff remain hopeful that sports can be held, perhaps as soon as Jan. 25, 2021 (as allowed by the California Department of Public Health) though he realizes conditions have to improve dramatically for that to happen. Football, originally rescheduled for early January, won’t happen then but CIF officials are trying to come up with a plan to start it in early March.
The pandemic was hitting hard, but it wasn’t as dire in October when CIF officials submitted their original return to play plan to the California Department of Public Health. The department responded and released its own plan on Monday, which grouped sports in four different tiers: widespread, substantial, moderate and minimal.
CIF officials had asked that all sports be grouped in the red or substantial tier based on the conditions at the time but that was not approved.
“We submitted our plan to the California Department of Public Health in October and at that time, five of our seven counties were in the red (substantial) tier, ” Wigod said in an interview Thursday with OC Sports Zone. “A couple of them were actually inching toward the orange tier. We were very hopeful that submitting a plan that (had) sports in the red tier, we had a situation where that was very realistic.”
But the latest statistics have been startling with record daily cases reported recently in the state. The Orange County Health Agency reported 2,615 cases and 13 more deaths Thursday in Orange County. There have been more than 1,700 deaths in the county since the pandemic began and more than 1,500 are hospitalized.
“What we’ve seen over the last four or five weeks has completely taken that in a different direction,” Wigod said. “We’re not only in the purple tier in all of our counties now but significantly deep into the purple tier and that’s going to be a major challenge going forward. But hopefully if some of these shutdown orders, and now we have the arrival of the vaccines and other things happening there is some movement in these numbers which only helps the discussion about trying to make some adjustments and revisions in the tiers as they are.
“But we’re going to need some information and some data that’s showing progress because that would help. If we’re not seeing the progress, then you can understand why our California Department of Public Health and our health professionals are reluctant to talk about opening things more often or releasing things more often ….. I can understand that from their perspective.”
TALKS WILL CONTINUE
Wigod said CIF officials will continue to talk with state officials.
“There is a lot for us to keep working on in terms of the effort to get high school sports back, the conversations will continue with the California Department of Public Health, with the governor’s office with those who have issued these guidelines in the hope that we can get a return to play plan moving in the next few weeks and months to have athletics return,” he said.
Under the state’s return to play guidelines, some sports such as cross country, swimming and diving and golf, could be played in the most restrictive purple tier, where all Southern California counties are, possibly as soon as Jan. 25. But the road is more difficult for other sports such as football and basketball because those sports are grouped in tiers that have much safer tiers.
The CIF State Office plans to have cheerleading, cross country, field hockey, football, gymnastics, skiing/snowboarding, girls volleyball and water polo in the first season between January and April and badminton, baseball, basketball, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, boys volleyball and wrestling in season two between March and June.
However, the tier-system announced by the state Monday would make it difficult for many of those sports to happen and there are no indications the seasons would be drastically altered, although they could be delayed. Wigod said CIF officials will be working with state officials to revise the tiers.
“We believe they (tiers for sports) can be moved and they will be moved with the latest developments and things that happen, so that is why we want to keep our efforts to stay in communication with the Department of Public Health and continue to advocate for student athletes and ways that we can have them return to the playing fields in a healthy and safe way,” Wigod said.
FOOTBALL IN ORANGE TIER
Football is currently in the moderate orange tier, which is two tiers below purple, so the challenges of having a football season are huge if the current plan holds up. Wigod is hoping for some changes, though. Regardless of the tier, coronavirus cases would have to drop dramatically in a relatively short time.
“We originally submitted all of our sports to be played in the red tier,” Wigod said. “We would still like to advocate for that position. That was a position supported by our CIF Sports Medicine Advisory Committee who developed the recommendations we had so we’re going to continue to try and advocate for that to happen and obviously if there can be some movement from these tiers in the time in front of us, then that gets us closer to return to play. We want to see that happen sooner rather than later, as long as it’s healthy and safe and we will try our best to see if that can happen.
“Because there is no question it’s a huge challenge to see sports like football and boys and girls water polo and volleyball needing to be in the orange tier when we are not only in the purple tier presently but we’re fairly deeply into the purple tier. We were in much different positions a few months ago.”
There are more steps ahead. The California Department of Health will meet again on Jan. 4, 2021 to re-assess the plan announced Monday.
“There is going to be a re-assessment by the California Department of Public Health on Jan. 4 in terms of the Jan. 25 date they’ve set as the date that competition could begin for the sports that are allowed at that time,” Wigod said. “And that date of Jan. 25 could stay the same, it could be moved forward or it could be pushed backwards.”
UPDATE PLANNED JAN. 19
Wigod is also planning an update for the CIF Southern Southern Section on Tuesday, Jan. 19.
“What we have committed to is on Jan. 19 we will announce the status of Southern Section championships for fall sports and those right now are scheduled for certain weeks and time frames in our seasons,” Wigod said.
“If we do have section championships taken off the board so to speak, then those time frames and weeks of the seasons set aside for that would then be open for schools to play league games or nonleague games and maybe even put together a post-season or even a tournament for a sport like water polo or volleyball or maybe a bowl idea for football where there could be even a little bit of a post-season experience included ….. So that’s where the seasons could extend even longer.”
The latest conversation about football includes practice starting on Feb. 15, 2021.
“That would be a date where they could play the first game on March 5, that would be week nine as scheduled now … April 17 becomes the last day where you could have a bowl game type of environment if you could get a couple teams from different leagues to play,” Wigod said. “That’s a scenario of an approximately six or seven game season over a two-month period from Feb. 15 to April 17.”
Wigod said there has not been support from the section’s medical professionals to have the season go beyond the middle of April.
“The feeling behind that is if we are actually able to play in March and April, then there does need to be a separation between that and the resumption of the new season in the fall of 2020-21, which would be in the month of August. So if football in the 2020-21 school year continues to move back into May and June, now you really have a situation where there is virtually no separation between the seasons and that’s not a position that is supported by health professionals and doctors who we rely on for that kind of information,” he said.
However, Wigod said he wouldn’t rule out pushing the next football season back a bit.
“That could be possible as well,” he said. “We kind of talked about a Sept. 15 start date for practice and there was a way to do Sept. 15 as that date: 10 regular season games, full section championships and wrapping up right now, this weekend, the weekend before winter break,” Wigod said. “That could potentially be an issue in terms of getting a greater separation between the school years and around Sept. 15, if you were going to have a full season for regular season and championships, that would be about the start date you would need to have.”
LOOKING AT JAN. 25
The immediate focus will be on this possible coming season and the sports which could start on Jan. 25.
“That’s the recommendation we have right now, there is the ability to do that right away,” Wigod said. “If you noticed in the guidelines, it talked about travel and local counties being able to compete with each other or adjoining counties. So, as that relates to a Southern Section championship, we have seven counties in the Southern Section footprint and our format would have one location for all seven counties to be part of a Southern Section championship.
“That’s not something that is included in the guidelines right now, so we will have to monitor going forward, but if we are able to start on Jan. 25, in the purple tier with cross country, then dual meets and other types of cross country competition could be held. It did include that schools in schools in groups could ask for waivers from their local county health departments to have multiple school events within their counties or adjoining counties, but they would need to get specific approval for those from their local counties.”
Wigod recommends that school officials review the guidelines for each sport that were released this week.
“An important part of the information that was released, and it didn’t get as much attention …… but there was a 36-page document that was included which was excellent information and I thought tremendous work done by the CIF Sports Medicine Advisory Committee to actually provide protocols for each individual sport,” he said. “That was really great information, so for schools as they begin on Jan. 25, they should definitely be looking at those recommendations and protocols to make sure they do it safely.”
Immediate family members would be allowed to attend the cross country meets and practices, Wigod said.
“That would be a school issue to determine who would be allowed to actually be present at practices and or competitions but this certainly allowed for parents and immediate family members to be present,” he said.
DIFFERENT APPROACHES
If sports do go on, there will be different approaches. Social distancing will be utilized when possible and congratulatory handshakes will be discouraged.
“We’re seeing the college model, the pro model and coaches are wearing masks and (football) players are even wearing masks on the sidelines when they’re not playing and sidelines have been extended further beyond the 25-yard lines so they can have more space and distance for everyone to be on that sideline,” Wigod said. “It seems to be effective in many cases.”
But Wigod indicated that high school sports should also be prepared for setbacks.
“We know we’re seeing outbreaks in the college level and the pro level too and we would have the same thing.,” he said. “I don’t think anyone is naive enough to believe that we won’t have outbreaks or circumstances that would cause us to have to stop things or adjust things.
“But the big picture is we would be able to get student athletes back playing and while some states we’ve talked to and others around the country that have played have been clear about what challenges have been and where they’ve have problems, they have been able to deal with those and still have 80 to 85 percent of their games being played, so we would probably see a similar situation if we get the opportunity.”
Wigod has been doing all he can to communicate with those who have concerns. On Wednesday, he met with high school football coaches in Orange County.,
“It went very well and I want to thank Jaime Ortiz at San Clemente and Dan O’Shea at Corona del Mar for organizing it and all the coaches who joined us. I think we had approximately 50 head football coaches from Orange County and a few others, a couple Long Beach guys.
“It was a great discussion. I think what people really need to know is how much our coaches are committed to education-based athletics like we are and so our discussions were really on the same page. We are not in any way in disagreement about what this is and how important it is and how we can try our best to return to play.
“I know sometimes people are looking at the conversations that are happening and the CIF is maybe on one side of it and the coaches and athletic directors are looking at options that don’t include the CIF. That’s actually not true.”
The goal is to provide an experience for high school athletes on campuses like the CIF has offered for many years.
“That’s really what the primary conversation and effort is how do we support each other to see if we can make education-based athletics happen in whatever format that can happen in whatever format we can so that we would be the ones to be working with student athletes,” Wigod said.
CLUB FOOTBALL A CONCERN
Wigod said CIF officials have been concerned about discussions regarding club football leagues starting up.
“We are, because what people may or may not recognize is that guidelines that were submitted and brought out on Monday are for everyone; there is not a separate guideline for high school programs and club programs ….
“So there is a lot of frustration that the high schools are going to follow the guidelines and if our schools, school districts and private schools are going to abide by these recommendations then everyone needs to do that, and that includes individual students and parents who are interested in pursuing club opportunities.”
Wigod also held a press conference last week in which high school athletes were allowed to ask questions.
“I was really glad to be able to field questions from student athletes and happy to do it again,” he said. “They are our primary focus and the group we care about the most and are trying to come through for and deliver for. I thought it was a great idea and I want to credit Thom Simmons, our assistant commissioner and Chelsea Heyward, our digitial media coordinator for the idea…… It was great to be engaged with student athletes and to be able to hear from them. Their voices are very important.”
Wigod said he gets lots of Emails and responds to them all, other than those who do not names listed or those who have personal attacks and aren’t addressing the issues. He tries to convey that the CIF is doing all it can to help in the safe and healthy return of high school sports.
“There is some misunderstanding out there that is the CIF and the CIF Southern Section are the ones who are placing these limitations and it’s not,” he said. “What we’ve tried to do is advocate for our student athletes and our programs with those who do make those decisions and while we didn’t get exactly what we asked for or hoped for we’re going to continue those conversations.
“We’re all on the same page because we all want the same thing they want because we believe in the same thing and anyone who believes the CIF Southern Section does not want the return to play of high school athletics in a healthy and safe way as soon as that can possibly happen is just not at all paying attention to what the reality of what this situation is.”
There is much work to do and schedules need to be finalized, but Wigod remains determined and hopeful better times are ahead along with some sense of normalcy.
“Our spring sports are on schedule, they’re scheduled to begin in the beginning of March or middle of March, we hope that’s three months from now, we hope there has been some movement,” he said. “There are some spring sports in the yellow tier: basketball and wrestling and that is a long journey to get to the yellow tier.”
Wigod said the end of June would be the latest that CIF sports could be held.
“I don’t believe we can go much beyond the middle of June or the end of June dates ….. anything beyond that really does encroach on certainly where our seniors would be involved and schools would not be in session.
“If we are actually able to compete in that time, we would hopefully be able to start out the 2021-22 school year in a normal timeframe that we’re used to.”
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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