Century and Santa Ana athletic programs facing major challenges under new CIF plan

Century’s Damian Martinez is guarded by Steven Yoo of Sunny Hills in last year’s Century Tournament. (File photo Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)

Century High School has hosted a long-running boys basketball tournament over the Christmas break for many years, one of the athletic program’s major fund-raisers.

But that tournament won’t be held this December as the proposed CIF school calendar for boys and girls basketball has been moved to March 12, 2021. The CIF’s plan on Monday was revealed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down high school sports since March. No sports will be held in August, September, October and November and sports can only start up if schools reopen to in-person schooling.

CIF officials have said that those tournaments could be held outside the typical season, but Cavanaugh said it is “highly unlikely” that would happen and it remains to be seen if the tournaments could be played during the regular season which begins in March.

“We have hosted several over the years, girls’ and boys’ volleyball, boys’ basketball at Christmas break, and 28 teams in baseball at Easter break,” he said.

“With athletic trainer and district safety officer work hours already severely extended by the CIF’s attempt to implement the community college model with the two seasons, I am not sure whether or not the resources will be in place to host these events this year. Overtime is expensive and may not come into play at the CIF office.”

Cavanaugh said there are other challenges at Century, which is in the Santa Ana Unified School District and competes in the Orange League.

“Frankly, the tournaments are the least significant challenge currently,” he said. “Given that we have very limited  field space at Century. I would guess that our physical campus is among the smallest public high schools in Southern California by a significant margin.

“Scheduling daily practices and games for five levels of soccer, three levels of baseball, two levels of softball, and track and field in essentially the same season of sport may leave us with the option of dropping levels or programs.

“The alternative would seem to be scheduling practices to start at 7 p.m. during the week after which many kids would walk home.”

Cavanaugh has said he has concerns about doing that.

Cavanaugh said he is also concerned about officials. Last season, the Orange League went to Thursday night basketball games, instead of Friday night games, to deal with the referee shortage in basketball.

“Throw in the fact that the impact of officials shortages are always felt most in the leagues whose typical level of play is lowest (enough to say the assignors never ask the Trinity League or the South Coast Conference to move their games), and it is clear for us that everything that glitters may not turn out to be gold,” Cavanaugh said.

“For high schools  with facilities, staffing, and community resources and funding that are similar to a community college, the reimagined schedule will be a positive; for the rest of us the most apt analogy is probably an overloaded electrical circuit.”

Cavanaugh said he is waiting for further direction from officials with the Santa Ana Unified School District on the future of athletics.

The long running Godinez boys basketball tournament won’t be held in December either. Whether it is rescheduled for March is not known. Boys basketball coach Greg Coombs could not be reached for comment.

Santa Ana High School Athletic Director Brian Lillie also expressed some concerns about staffing and facilities.

“I appreciate the efforts of CIF to provide full seasons for all sports,” Lillie said. “I am concerned about staffing with sports where we have the same coach coaching both boys and girls teams in the same season. That’s going to create shine l some scheduling complications.”

Under the new plan, boys and girls volleyball and girls and boys water polo would be held in December.

“Also, we’re going to have to figure out boys and girls volleyball since officials were already tight with only one program running at a time,” Lillie said.

“Boys and girls tennis played in different seasons would have alleviated some facilities issues and could have saved money on transportation by allowing us to continue transporting with school vans.

“Regardless, we’ll figure it out and make it work. We just need the virus to subside and the district to clear us to begin practicing again.”

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com