REDDING — Members of the Northern Section executive committee voted in favor of a plan on Wednesday they believe will allow prep athletes, schools and districts the most flexibility for returning to competition.
As a result of the proposed motion that passed, with one committee member voting against it, all sports, under the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy tier system, are allowed to begin on the date the California Department of Public Health authorizes it to start. As of now, that date is Monday, Jan. 25.
The plan is contingent on what tier a school’s county is in. The tiers are used to monitor each county’s COVID-19 trends by two metrics — case rate per 100,000 and positivity rate. Currently, all but four counties in the state are in the most restrictive purple tier, which only allows cross-country, golf, swimming, tennis, track and field and alpine sports (skiing and snowboarding).
Previously, sports in the Northern Section and the rest of the CIF were divided into separate seasons of play. With this vote in the Northern Section, sports are no longer tethered to a specific period of time, with a few exceptions.
Northern Section Commissioner Liz Kyle noted the CIF’s sports advisory committee recommended that football be concluded by April 30 in order to give an adequate amount of time for the fall 2021 season to start as scheduled. However, football is a sport only allowed to be played when a given county is in the orange tier. Since nearly all counties in the Northern Section have not reached that point yet, it could mean a team’s football season is much shorter than normal, or isn’t played at all.
Additionally, the executive committee said sports that have similarities with athletes who compete in both, such as cross-country and track and field, should be prioritized to start and end at different times to avoid overlapping seasons.
The plan likely means section playoffs won’t be able to take place as they normally would, however, a friendly amendment was added to the motion for the section to help facilitate some type of postseason venue if possible. Examples discussed included a bowl game for football, or a postseason tournament for basketball or other sports.
Ultimately, the course of action taken at Wednesday’s meeting leaves schools having to figure out scheduling and other logistics on their own, which could be further complicated as counties move tiers at different times. Randy Gilzean, who voted against the motion, said he was concerned the plan could cause coaches and administration to come into conflict when making some of these decisions.
“I see some real concerns with that, where the (athletic directors) don’t have much say over their coaches,” Gilzean said. “The coaches are going to do what they want, and the coaches group is going to get together and schedule out long periods of time if we say you have this open period of time.
“We say counties are now going to decide, they’re going to decide what sports are played when. Well, coaches are going to be upset by that and create their own groups of four coaches that want to play at a different time. It’s going to throw everything into (the) wild, wild west.”
Kyle responded, “It does have the potential to be the wild, wild west, yes, but that’s where … school administrators get the big bucks. All school administrators are going to have to decide what is acceptable at their school. And what is acceptable at Chico High may be different than what’s acceptable at Princeton. … By opening it up, we allow the needs of each school — geography, as well as school size — to be addressed and the administration at the site would be in control of that.”
Aside from the sports allowed in the purple tier, mentioned above, the CDPH has outlined the following sports be allowed in the following tiers, from more restrictive to least restrictive:
- Red: baseball, field hockey, softball and girls lacrosse;
- Orange: football, gymnastics, boys lacrosse, soccer, volleyball and
water polo; - Yellow: basketball, competitive cheerleading and wrestling.
“The restrictive part is going to be the color tier that you’re in at the county level,” Cris Oseguera said. “And then after that, if we’re fortunate enough to get to not purple … that would be fantastic to have those discussions and then make adjustments at that time, which, I think is what we’re talking about. Make adjustments on the fly, as needed, to benefit the kids.”
In other business at the start of the meeting, Kyle mentioned the recent “Let Them Play CA” rallies that took place across the state on Friday, Jan. 15, including several cities and towns in the Northern Section, and emphasized, “CIF is not on the other side. We also want them to play.”
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January 21, 2021 at 07:13AM
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Northern Section votes to allow most sports to begin at the same time for added flexibility - Chico Enterprise-Record
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