The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the governing body of California high school athletics, announced earlier this month that they do not anticipate a return to in-person sports until the new year at the very earliest, as COVID-19 cases are surging throughout the state. Without any further guidelines, many schools have been left unable to practice or plan for the future.
December 7 was previously set by CIF as the return date for high school sports, but after the most recent postponement, a new date has yet to be announced. Along with the postponement of guidelines — and therefore a return to high school athletics — Regional and State Championships for Fall Sports have been canceled.
Youth club sports have been allowed to resume practicing in San Francisco using the California Department of Public Health guidelines, released on August 3, which include wearing masks, maintaining six feet of distance, using stable cohort pods and avoiding shared equipment.
However, these guidelines are not always strictly enforced. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a recent club basketball tournament in Placer County, which spans from the Sacramento suburbs to Lake Tahoe, led to over two dozen new coronavirus infections over a large geographical range.
The ability to participate in club sports has been overall a positive experience for many. Maggie Marks ’24, a club player for SF Youth Field Hockey, describes the experience; “Being able to go outside and see people not only gives you a break from being on Zoom all day but also gives you something to do while being COVID-safe.” She added that “especially as a freshman, without being able to make those connections through in-person school, those social and athletic events have been super helpful for meeting new people, making new friends and doing something other than online school at home.”
University High School (UHS) has begun captain’s practices for outdoor low contact sports such as field hockey, lacrosse, tennis, cross country, baseball and softball. These are just what they sound like: small pods of UHS students practicing outdoors.
UHS is able to do so because of much easier access to facilities such as Paul Goode and Mountain Lake Park, as well as a dismissal time of 2:30 PM — which allows for more daylight. Because LWHS students’ classes do not end until 3:30 — and sunset is currently before 5 p.m. — by the time many students could arrive at a practice location, there would be limited light.
Moreover, because the facilities LWHS uses are mostly at City College, which is currently shut down, and other gyms are also closed, there are no facilities that LWHS could use to begin practices. LWHS has only been able to introduce strength and conditioning workouts for students on campus for the week of December 7. These were an hour long and took place on the turf outside the library building.
However, the LWHS cross country team captains have been able to coordinate much smaller workouts, organized by zip code. Team captain Adam Spitzler ‘21 feels that holding these workouts has “brought a lot of unity to the team, especially for freshmen and those who are joining the team for the first time.” Spitzler said that cross country specifically is “very low risk in terms of COVID” compared to contact sports, which makes it easier for captains to plan practices that team members can attend if they feel safe doing so. Though the workouts have run smoothly, he would like to start holding official practices as soon as possible, as “it would take some stress off the captains and give runners a sense of structure.”
Due to the recent Bay Area shelter-in-place order, the cross country team captains have decided to call off these practices indefinitely. Other club sports — including UHS’s captain’s practices — are permitted to continue to practice throughout the shutdown. The new order will also likely further delay any release of any guidelines from CIF.
When LWHS finally gets the go-ahead from the state to resume sports, the sports program at school will look very different from the pre-COVID-19 model and will present many new challenges for student-athletes. For example, LWHS Athletics Director Eliot Smith describes the added costs of more buses — health department rules only allow 12 people per bus, so large teams like cross country could need upwards of seven buses. Two other factors in restarting LWHS sports are City College’s facilities closure and navigating restrictions due to the pandemic that vary from county to county. Each of these aspects makes it difficult to bring back competition in a safe and manageable way.
As the situation continues to be up in the air, students are finding ways to stay active alone. Smith recommends that “during the next few weeks, during this long winter break, we need to really think about starting a routine if we can. You know, do push-ups, sit-ups, running, just to keep yourself up mentally, maybe view some positive coaching on YouTube for your sports.” In classic Smith style, the coach adds, “you need to put your foot in the circle.”
