Future of high school sports uncertain after CIF state officials delay start of seasons

CIF state officials announced on Tuesday that “full practice and competition start dates are officially on hold” for high school sports throughout the state as they wait for further guidance from the California Department of Health.

In a release, state officials said that the California Department of Health Officials postponed the issuance of updated return to play guidelines because of surging coronavrius cases throughout the state.

State officials said they are removing state and regional playoffs for the first season, which is scheduled to include cross country, boys and girls water polo, girls volleyball and football. The state release said that boys volleyball, originally scheduled to start this month, would move to season two.

If the go-ahead is eventually given for high school sports to return by state, county and local health officials, non-league games may have to be scrapped, but it appears that CIF Southern Section playoffs could still be held.

Up until Tuesday, the seasons for boys and girls volleyball, boys and girls water polo and boys and girls cross country were scheduled to start this month under the revised CIF plan. Football was scheduled to start either Thursday, Jan. 7 or Friday, Jan. 8, 2021.

State officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have been alarmed about the surge in coronavirus cases and all counties in Southern California are in the most restrictive purple tier and the state is in a limited stay at home order and possibly facing tighter restrictions soon.

The Orange County Health Agency reported 790 positive coronavirus cases and no deaths on Tuesday. The agency noted that 648 people are hospitalized and estimated that 59,783 have recovered.

The coronavirus pandemic has put high school athletics on hold since March but many high school teams have been going through conditioning drills with hopes of returning to play.

CIF State and Southern Section officials have been waiting for return to play guidelines but they aren’t expected for a while.

“The California Interscholastic Federation does not expect the CDPH will issue any guidance allowing for schools to return to full practice and competition until after Jan. 1, 2021, at the earliest,” the release from the state said.

“Thus, all full practice and competition start dates are officially on hold until updated guidance is issued. Therefore, to provide the 10 CIF Sections, our 1,605 member schools, and more than 800,000 student-athletes the best opportunity to compete in Season 1 Sports, once allowed by the CDPH and local county offices of public health, the CIF State Office is removing all regional and state championship events from the Season 1 Sports calendar.

“By canceling regional and state championship events, more student-athletes will have the opportunity to participate in a longer season, rather than a truncated season with regional and state post-season play for a limited number of schools.

“Additionally, boys volleyball will be moved to season 2 to avoid the loss of a second full season, and an updated season 2 calendar to include boys volleyball will be posted in January.”

CIF Southern Section Commissioner Rob Wigod issued a statement to principals and athletic directors which was shared with the media:

“In July, we made the decision to delay the start of the CIF  sports calendar state-wide so that we would be able to have full regular seasons and full  section championships for all sports during the 2020-2021 school year. We believed that  if we allowed the maximum amount of time possible to gain control of the situation we  could deliver to our student-athletes what we all want for them and give them what they  deserve. Since July, there clearly has not been any progress made toward gaining control  of the pandemic, in fact, it has gotten worse and here is where we are on December 1…  

“The same scenario has been in place since the onset of the pandemic in March and the  closures of our schools last spring. Individual schools/school districts/private schools  have the sole responsibility to determine when their schools will re-open for academics,  and then after doing so, determine when their athletic programs could return to campus as  well, following guidelines from state and local health authorities. Regardless of any  calendar that we adopted, that reality is what drives where we have been, where we are  now and where we are trying to go.  

“Since the beginning of October, we have been actively working with the California  Department of Public Health trying to get a plan approved for return to play for  education-based athletics. The plan was developed by our CIF Sports Medicine Advisory  Committee, which is made up of doctors and other health professionals from around the  state. The centerpiece of our proposal was an attempt to incorporate the four colored tier  system: purple, red, orange and yellow, that is applied to each of California’s 58 counties,  and directly connect those color designations to high school sports. In other words, what  does it mean for practice and/or competition if your county is in the purple tier, red tier,  orange tier, yellow tier?

“Included in our plan was a sport-by-sport breakdown of various  health and safety protocols to be implemented for each specific sport that incorporates the  differences between what is recommended for Volleyball and how it is different from  cross-country, different from football, etc. We believe that information would be  extremely useful to you in navigating through practices and competitions held on our campuses.

“The original plan we submitted has been reviewed by the California  Department of Public Health and we have been awaiting their response, which was  expected a couple of weeks ago. However, with the recent surge of COVID-19 in  California during the month of November, the CDPH has not yet provided guidelines for  us to follow and we are not sure when that will happen. We are prepared to receive the  information from the CDPH whenever they are ready to deliver it, and as soon as it  becomes available, I will certainly share it with you.”  

It’s not yet clear what lies ahead for high school sports.

“As I have said previously, our sports  calendar for Fall Sports and Spring Sports for the 2020-2021 school year is in  place and will remain in place,” Wigod continued in his statement. “If schools are not able to begin  practice/competition for Fall Sports in mid-December, as originally planned, then  the hope would be you can begin at a time in the future that would allow you to  do so. In that instance, unfortunately, there would have to be  postponements/cancellations of athletic contests at the start of the fall sports  season, but league play and post-season play would remain as scheduled.

“If  regular seasons are shortened, it would be at the front end of the season, keeping  the back end of the season unchanged. It is our intention for post-season play to  be a destination for schools who are able to play this Fall, even more so if regular  seasons are reduced at the beginning. Time will tell what that will look like, but as  I have said throughout the period of time in preparation of the 2020-2021 sports  calendars, all options will be on the table for post-season play as well. “

Wigod said he will provide an update on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021.

Wigod said that individual school districts have the  “sole responsibility of determining what athletic  activities you will allow on your campuses, following the guidelines from state and local  health authorities. These guidelines are not CIF Bylaws contained in our Blue Book, but  are recommendations made by health professionals who have the obligation to enforce  the guidelines they have recommended.”

Wigod added that current projections call for a loss of $275,000 to the CIF budget in the fiscal year 2020-21 after a number of cost-cutting moves.

But he added that if additional revenue is lost, “the loss could be as large as $600,000-$700,000, which would necessitate the use of our cash reserves to cover the shortfall.”

CIF Southern Section officials said no additional comments would be provided to the media Tuesday.  However, Wigod has made himself available for interviews with media outlets on Wednesday.

Irvine Unified School District Athletic Director Mark Cunningham said he was expecting an announcement.

“Not surprising,” he said in a text Tuesday night. “I knew something was going to have to be announced because sections in the North were supposed to start football practice Dec. 7. (Southern Section teams were scheduled to start Dec. 14).

“Let’s hope people take precautions. We want our businesses back, we want to reduce the load on our front line health officials, and we want our athletics back. It will take a concerted effort by all Californians to make this happen.

“I am optimistic that is possible. The state CIF made a huge statement and sacrifice for our student athletes by cancelling the regional and state championships. I know they are doing their best to get athletics back.”

Cunningham said that football teams need 14 days of full workouts before the seasons begin.

On Monday, Irvine high school athletic programs returned to phase one conditioning drills, which meant that no balls would be allowed for the sports such as volleyball, water polo and football.

Cunningham said Tuesday that IUSD teams would continue with conditioning drills.

“We want to be prepared,” he said. “Phase 1 is conditioning and individual skill drills. No sharing of equipment…..”

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