After a sports year like no other, CIF commissioner looks for a return to normalcy

CIF Southern Section Commissioner Rob Wigod was on hand for CIF finals, including baseball championships at Cal State Fullerton last weekend. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)

CIF Southern Section Commissioner Rob Wigod is already looking forward to the 2021-22 athletic school year, which is scheduled to start in August, and is planning for a normal three-season calendar.

One of the new moves Wigod is excited about is a new football playoff system to be utilized next season. (Click here for details).

Wigod is also reflecting on what was his most challenging year as commissioner. The coronavirus pandemic, which put a hold on high school sports in March 2020, created numerous obstacles and roadblocks. It delayed the start of most seasons, including an abbreviated football season which began in March of this year.

Wigod talked about some of the issues during an interview with OC Sports Zone. Here are excerpts of his interview with TIm Burt.

Let’s start with a review this past sports season:

Wigod: It’s been quite a journey and we have certainly finished the school year much differently than we started. So obviously the focus was on student athletes and trying to do anything and everything we could to deliver for the student athletes and fortunately we were able to do so and not every single sport maybe enjoyed the same experience. But when we released the calendar back in July of 2020 we felt it was the only way that every sport would get played in this school year. That did happen and certainly what we experienced with season two specifically, we had well over 100 divisional championships in 19 sports for boys and girls that were all done between May 21 and June 19.

So in a four-week period there was a lot that went on in terms of the events themselves and a lot of planning before that and certainly we’re excited with the way that the school year finished just to see the faces of our student athletes and to see how much they appreciated the opportunities to be out there doing what they love to do and what we love to watch them do.

Talk about the CIF finals last weekend:

Wigod: It started on Friday night. We had a really big night at Blair Field in Long Beach for some baseball finals and then I had come to Cal State Fullerton in the morning (for baseball) and saw game one and had gone over to softball at Barber Park in Irvine and was going to come back to Cal State Fullerton for the nightcap. The game at Barber Park ended up in the ninth inning zero-zero and with two out in the bottom of the ninth, a young lady from Upland hit the ball over the fence and there was the game, a walk-off home run to win 1-0. I handed the awards out there, then jumped back in the car and got to Fullerton and saw the last four innings of our Division 1 baseball game. It was a wonderful weekend and there had actually been several weekends before that. I had the opportunity to go to soccer, to tennis, to basketball, to lacrosse, to volleyball, wrestling. It was just remarkable and amazing to be there and experience that in so many different places and again with one common theme, that the students were back doing what they love to do and what we love to watch them do.

How would you assess the football season?

Wigod: I think it was the best we could possibly provide, it certainly wasn’t what people would be expecting or what we’ve had in the past but as the dark days of December and January which which were just extremely difficult and it seemed the ability to have a football season of any kind was going to rapidly slip away from us and so it did get to turn-around and our schools did get some opportunities, league games for the most part. I know that was certainly preferable to nothing and now of course we look forward to a normal 10-game regular season and a normal section championships, state, regional and state championship as well in football and all of our sports.

How did it work out having home sites at gymnasiums for the basketball playoffs?

Wigod: There is such a tradition of our basketball championships being at a central venue. And I was curious as to reaction, specifically from our road teams who would be travelling to a host site instead of a central venue, more of a neutral site. But I think there were a couple of factors. First and foremost was the appreciation we were having section championships in basketball. If that meant we were going to be playing at host sites, then so be it. And I also think that the capacity limit was a part of that because if there was a capacity of 400 at a gym and at a school, then tickets were distributed 200 and 200. So there was always an equal distribution of tickets for all of those home site games. And I think that’s different than a road team going into a 2,000 seat gym and having 1,700 of the fans being for the home teams and 300 for the visitors. Each school was sent a specific ticket link for their school, for their families.

What is the summer looking like?

Wigod: We waived the summer dead period for this one summer, we felt with the late ending of our spring championships just ending last weekend and the resumption of fall sports in the beginning of August, our schools needed some flexibility this upcoming time frame. There is no dead period for everyone as a normal summer so to speak would be so our schools have complete management and control of their calendars over the summer and we are hopeful and we’ve encouraged them to build some down time into that time period but they will be navigating it as best they can as at it serves their school in the best way possible from here until about the first part of August when we will resume fall sports.

What about a preview of the 2021-22 calendar:

Wigod: We really expect our fall, winter and spring again. We will have three seasons of sport following calendars that have been published and our expectations are they will start on time and be able to followed as they normally would. It’s hopefully full speed ahead now and just getting prepared for that to come back to what we are pretty much used to and expected that got interrupted.

If it all stays the same, do you see any restrictions for players, coaches and fans due to the coronavirus?

Wigod: I don’t at the moment. I do think it’s still going to be up to our individual schools, school districts and private schools to make sure that they are comfortable with whatever procedures and protocols they have in place on their campuses in general with student bodies and for athletic events as well. We will respect those decisions. From our standpoint, we want to go forward expecting things to be as they were maybe pre-pandemic. But I also believe that we’ve learned a lot. And a lot of the lessons we learned when we were able to get started again, if we were to take a turn back in the other direction, we know how to do protocols for testing and protocols for capacity limits and distancing and ways to manage venues in a healthy and safe way. None of us hope we end going backward at all, we want to continue to progress as we have.

But I guess I would like to believe we have certainly learned a lot and there are ways we can manage something in that situation because we have real life experiences on how to go through this and navigate through it across a lot of sports and I think that was really valuable for all of us. We would be better prepared if we had to go backward and I certainly hope that’s not the case.

So, for attendance for fans would that be left up to the individual schools?

Wigod: Yes it will, unless there are other guidelines that come from the California Department of Public Health and or local and county authorities, it will still be up to those individual schools, school districts and private schools as to the procedures and protocols they want to have in place for games on their campuses.

How did the first CIF lacrosse championships go?

Wigod: It was fantastic and I want to credit Thom Simmons, assistant commissioner and Anita Fopma, program coordinator. It was our first year with lacrosse championships, six divisions, three for boys and three for girls. Thom got out to five of the six championship events, I got to one of them. The feeling out there was of appreciation and thanks and gratitude and they were so excited we had the first year of Southern Section lacrosse championships. They went very well and they had some great games. It was a really good feeling about something new. And we have beach volleyball coming next, that’s going to be a new sport next year.

After the challenges of this year, what is the financial picture for the CIF?

Wigod: There have been challenges obviously. We went approximately 15 months with no championship revenue. That’s over 50 percent of our operating budget that did not come in. So we did have to take some drastic steps. We had to cut expenses very, very drastically. We did have corporate support. I was very pleased that several of our corporate partners continued with their commitments even without sports for that time frame and the nice thing was is that we did come back with a roar so their commitment they gave to us was able to be rewarded with what they usually would get and expect from us. At the end of year, financially I think we’re going to be just fine. I’m very proud of the fact even through the difficulties we never came back to our schools and asked for anything more. They paid their membership dues as normal and at the same rates for the 2020-21 school year and we were able to weather this financial crisis without ever having to come back to them and asking for more. I want to credit our chief financial officer Mitch Carty who did a fabulous job …. and helped with every aspect of that process.

How satisfying was it for you to see the championships completed last weekend?

WIgod: Maybe it hasn’t all sunk in yet. I certainly walked out of Cal State Fullerton Saturday night with a pretty big deep breath just to believe we got it all completed and finished and it really went very, very well, but it’s all probably going to sink in a little bit more as we start winding it down and we take a little bit of a break and start planning for next year. But I’m extremely proud of our schools. Our student athletes are the heroes, they’re the ones who stayed with it, stayed connected, stayed engaged, even not knowing what was in there for them. They didn’t even know if they would get the chance. And certainly our coaches and athletic directors and all the hard work they did to keep connected to the students and to change the schedules and share the facilities and share the coaches. I’m really proud of our schools, because the adults did the job adults needed to do to deliver and come through for the student athletes and they did it without talking about how hard it was or how much they had to do to make it happen They made it happen and I believe that was really important to our students so they didn’t hear how hard it was going to be or how difficult it might be or how impossible it might seem. They just saw the results.

Our staff was incredible and I’m not surprised because our staff is second to none and I know we can do anything. It was a tremendous challenge but I wasn’t surprised our staff would come through as well. It really was a team effort.

What are your hopes moving forward for 2021-22?

Wigod: I would like to see us build on these successes and the feelings of appreciation and gratitude for the opportunity to be part of education-based athletics. I would like people to continue the spirit of which we’ve felt these last few months especially where virtually everywhere I went, there was a commonality of, we thank you and we appreciate you and appreciate the work you’re doing and we appreciate the work the schools are doing. There was a pause in education based athletics, it may have been taken for granted in the past, people missed it and realized how important it is. It’s come back and I would like to think that that pause allowed us really re-focus our energies on how important this work is and who it is for and that we continue to approach with gratitude for the opportunity with realization of how important it is to the development of young people and that we continue the momentum with the way we finished the 2020-21 school year, because I think we all agreed we finished on a pretty high note.

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