The high school football season was originally supposed to kick off last August, then pushed back to January because of restrictions resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Now it seems high school football could be played sometime in March.
But who’s counting?
The San Diego Section issued its latest update on the state of high school sports in the region on Feb. 21. Included was a new timeline for football, which some had come to the conclusion might not be played this spring.
Under the original color-coded tier system introduced by the California Department of Public Health in mid-December, football was classified in the Orange Tier, meaning practice could not start until the region had reached the Red Tier.
But that color-coded system has since been replaced with a new standard recently put into place by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Now, contact-based practices and competitions will be permitted to begin when the county of school residence reaches an adjusted COVID case rate equal to or less than 14 per 100,000.
San Diego County currently has an adjusted rate of 15 per 100,000, narrowly missing the projected start date for football practice for Friday, Feb. 26.
As the numbers continue to come down, players, coaches and fans can start to count down the days to when full-contact football can start.
The section had set Friday as the first day of practice, though that will now be pushed back.
The section’s timetable announced by Joe Heinz, section commissioner, lists March 11 as the first possible scrimmage, March 12 as the first possible contest with no scrimmage and April 17 as the last day of competition.
With section and state playoffs already cancelled, this would seem to allow for practices and multiple games to be held in that time period.
But how many games remains to be seen.
Ideally, Heinz and section leaders had envisioned either a five-game league and one scrimmage schedule or a six-game schedule that included five league games and one non-league game.
If practices are delayed due to meeting the adjusted COVID case rate, that schedule might have to be pared back by a week or two.
Locally, the Sweetwater Union High School District, which governs the Metro Conference, would have to set appropriate dates for the start of practices and competitions. The district held back one week from the start of Season 1 practices initially set by the section.
“The big key is getting the adjusted case rate (with seven-day delay) for San Diego at 14 or below,” Bonita Vista High School athletic director/football coach Tyler Arciaga said. “I believe we were at 22 last week and the number has been trending downward significantly. The CIF plans to start practices on Feb. 26, but districts may choose to start later — the Sweetwater district wouldn’t start until the following week at the earliest.
“Practices must be non-contact until the seven-day adjusted case rate falls to 14 or below. At that point, contact practices and games can start. Once contact practices and games start, testing must be done weekly. On game weeks, testing must be done 24 hours prior to the game. Part of the agreement with the state is that they would provide these rapid tests at no charge to the schools for football and water polo. Testing will be done at the site level (for most districts) and more guidance will come out in the next few days. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we need that case rate to drop a little more.”
Arciaga noted that the Sweetwater district has taken a more cautious approach to the ongoing pandemic and how it relates to athletics.
“The district has not allowed us to use equipment, including footballs, since we started cohort workouts in November,” Arciaga said. “Given that situation and prioritizing student safety, the Metro football coaches agreed that we should not be scrimmaging on March 11-13 and we would start scrimmages or games — by school choice — the following weekend. We are still awaiting guidance from the district that should hopefully come at the end of the week.”
Another issue is that the conference has about a half-dozen new head coaches, many of whom only had one team meeting before sports were shut down last March. Since then, the district has only allowed conditioning drills.
Arciaga falls into that group.
“I have never seen them throw, catch and tackle in person, so this should be a wild ride,” he said.
Next up
Cross country was also addressed, specifically a potential end of season section championship event.
It now appears that will not happen.
“With the current guidance not permitting more than two teams to participate in a contest, we are unable to see any pathway in which we could be able to host a championship event for our section,” Heinz said. “We will continue to work with our conferences to look at all possible options to provide a culminating event for their leagues and conferences, with the last day of possible competition of Saturday, March 27.”
Cross country and swim/dive are the only Season 1 sports that have officially opened their seasons. The Grossmont Conference has already counted off two weeks of cross country dual meets and is set to open swimming this week; the Metro Conference is set to step off its 2021 cross country season on Friday with a pair of dual meets and open its swim/dive season on March 11.
The timeline appears to be ticking down on the field hockey and roller hockey seasons, however. The season of sport for field hockey opened Feb. 1 in the Purple Tier for practices but has yet to reach the Red Tier that would allow for competitions to start under the current guidance.
Heinz said practices would continue through Feb. 25. After that date, contact-based practices and competitions would be permitted when the county reaches of dips below the magic 14 per 100,000 case rate.
The current end date for field hockey and roller hockey is March 20.
In the meantime, both sports continue to wait for the first face-off of the 2021 season.
Season 2
Three sports — golf, tennis and track and field — have officially opened their seasons and no changes have been made to the master calendar for tennis and golf.
The track and field season has been tweaked, however.
Based on a proposal by the section’s track and field advisory committee, the section has made the decision to move the last day of competition up by one week to May 29. The section prelims would be moved to June 5 and the section finals would be held on June 12, should the event be permitted.
Baseball, softball, girls lacrosse and sideline cheer are all classified in the Red Tier. The first day of practice remains March 13.
Boys lacrosse, boys and girls soccer and boys and girls water polo are all classified in the Orange Tier.
Based on updated guidelines from the state, the section has adjusted the start date for the first day of practice for soccer from Feb. 22 to Feb. 26. The first date of practices for boys lacrosse remains March 13 and the first date of practice for water polo remains April 17.
Heinz noted that the section is unable to officially open the seasons for any indoor sports at this time, including badminton, gymnastics and girls volleyball.
“We will continue to monitor any changes and/or updates of the California Department of Public Health regarding indoor sports,” Heinz noted in the memo.
Other indoor sports waiting for word on their status include boys and girls basketball, competitive sport cheer, boys volleyball and boys and girls wrestling. All are classified in the least restrictive Yellow Tier.
Updates: www.cifsds.org
CROSS COUNTRY SCHEDULE
Metro Conference
Friday, Feb. 26
Castle Park-Southwest at Imperial Beach pier
Sweetwater-Chula Vista at Otay Ranch High School
Friday, March 5
Mar Vista, San Ysidro, Montgomery at San Ysidro High School
Chula Vista at Hilltop
Sweetwater-Mater Dei Catholic at Imperial Beach pier
Bonita Vista at Otay Ranch
Olympian at Eastlake
All start times 3 p.m.
