The Estancia High School football helmet. (File photo: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)
Estancia High School Athletic Director Nate Goellrich confirmed the announcement made on Tuesday that summer summer high school sports have been cancelled in the Newport Mesa Unified School District due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The district’s superintendent Dr. Frederick Navarro sent a message to families in the district updating them on the overall impact of the crisis to the district’s programs.
“Due to the hands-on nature of many of our summer enrichment programs and social distancing requirements, our summer enrichment programs, such as engineering, theatre and athletics, will be cancelled for summer 2020,” the statement read in part.
Estancia, Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor and Costa Mesa are high schools in the district.
It is not clear how the announcement will affect fall sports, including football or whether it will cause a delay in the start of the season for those teams.
“Summer sports have been cancelled currently for the Newport Mesa School District,” Goellrich told OC Sports Zone Wednesday night. “We are hopeful that a possible change to this decision will happen if/when more information becomes available. We look forward to receiving some guidance from CIF State with CIF State Executive Director Ron Nocetti announcing they are working on ‘return to participation’ guidelines that could be out in the next couple of weeks.
“Newport Mesa School District felt it was important to update our community on where summer activities stand, not just athletics but other programs as well. We will always put the safety of our student athletes and coaches first and currently we do not see how summer programs can happen under current restrictions.
“At Estancia High School, our coaches and student athletes are eager to get back to competition and participating in sports. We have been communicating with our coaches and student athletes consistently and have been planning out different scenarios. Our CIF summer ‘dead period’ is being taken from June 22 to July 5 so the earliest we could return is July 6.”
Goellrich said he will continue to monitor the situation.
“I respect and understand our school dstrict’s stance to currently cancel our summer programs,” he said. “We plan to continue to monitor for new information and look forward to safely returning to athletic events. The Estancia community has been great through this time of uncertainty and I am proud of all the hard work we are doing to get things ready to start up again.”
Estancia’s football team is scheduled to open the season on Friday, Aug. 28 at home against Loara but there is no indication if the game will be played then.
CIF Southern Section Commissioner Rob Wigod said in an interview with OC Sports Zone that all options are on the table for the start of football and fall sports and indicated there is a chance the start of the season could be delayed.
Wigod remained hopeful that the fall, winter and spring seasons would eventually go on.
Corona del Mar High School athletic officials could not be reached for comment.
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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