Questions remain about high school athletics and camps after state report on re-opening schools

University High football players take part in a summer camp last June. (File photo courtesy Harrison Zhang, For OC Sports Zone)

Irvine Unified School District officials are scheduled to discuss Tuesday the report released Monday by the California State Department of Education which recommended guidelines for the re-opening of schools.

The report comes about three months after the coronavirus pandemic cancelled spring sports and put a hold on any off-season athletics.

In the report from the state, little was said about athletics and there was nothing specific on summer athletic camps which a number of school districts are planning to have. The 62-page document is entitled ‘Stronger Together, A Guide for the Safe Reopening of California’s Public Schools.’

The detailed report from state superintendent of schools Tony Thurmond noted that physical education and intramural/interscholastic athletics should be limited to “activities that do not involve physical contact with other students or equipment until advised otherwise by state/local public health officials.”

Later in the report officials suggested that “local education agency leaders will need to consult public health experts for when these activities may be safely resumed. LEAs are encouraged to be in touch with their local lead of the California Interscholastic Federations.”

Irvine school district officials will discuss Tuesday on whether to go ahead with the camps, scheduled to begin Monday, June 22, or push them back two weeks to Monday, July 6, said Mark Cunningham, Irvine Unified School District Athletic Director.

All the points in the state report were recommendations, so the decisions of whether to have camps may end up being made by individual school districts.

“A lot of it is leaving it up to each school district to determine what is best for their school district and what is safe with their interpretation based on what the health department and the state have provided and now we have the education superintendent,” Cunningham said.

“I don’t even know about athletics yet, but just talking about the summer camps is practice social distancing, incorporating all of the CDC guidelines, the Orange County Department of Health and a combination of all these things. But what it boils down for me is social distancing, masks and hygiene and developing plans within each camp that addresses those issues to allow you to have the camp.”

Football camps would not have the typical 7-on-7 scrimmages.

“You could probably do a walk-through but you couldn’t do contact,” Cunningham said. “You just couldn’t have them competing against each other in a contact situation. What I see football doing is they can do individual drills, social distancing of course, they could do conditioning drills and weight training with probably one person per station.

“Whatever the summer camps are, they’re going to be very different from what they were in year’s past. It’s going to take the imagination of all of the coaches as they develop their camps.”

Cunningham said he expects athletes and coaches will be required to wear facial coverings and plenty of sanitation stations would have to be available. He said district officials will discuss whether temperature checks would be required for coaches and athletes. Social distancing would be emphasized, he added.

Athletic camps are also being discussed among officials at Orange Unified, Newport Mesa, Tustin Unified and Santa Ana Unified with decisions possibly coming later this week.

The Pacific Coast Conference will feature the six Irvine schools along with Laguna Hills and Dana Hills forming two four-team leagues. Dana Hills is only in the conference for football. Laguna Hills joins for all sports.

The schools are part of four different districts who may have different directives for camps. Five Irvine schools are in the Irvine Unified School District, Beckman is in Tustin Unified, Laguna Hills is in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and Dana Hills is in the Capistrano Unified School District.

Cunningham said he isn’t sure what will happen with athletics in the fall, but said he believes officials in the four districts could come to an agreement on the future of fall sports for member schools.

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