‘We did not ask for this’: Sacramento-area teens face canceled proms, trips over coronavirus
When Breeana Hall heard from her choir teacher that her Rocklin High School choir was invited to perform at the internationally renowned Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, she was “beyond herself,” her mother, Shelly Marks, said.
Hall, a senior, sprang into fundraising mode. She got a job at Walmart in November, worked more than 20 hours a week, and helped her mom save more than $4,100 for the trip.
More than 90 students and chaperones were scheduled to fly out to the choir performance this month. They were to perform a 40-minute piece in Latin they practiced for months.
“They had a phenomenal trip planned,” Marks said. “This pulled the rug right out from underneath her.”
The “this” Marks refers to is the fallout from rising coronavirus fears. Students across the region have had senior moments shelved, be it the Rocklin choir or the Sheldon High boys basketball team that was in pursuit of state history.
With schools around the region trying to curb the spread of the coronavirus, several counties, including Placer And Sacramento’s Offices of Education, shut schools down for up to three weeks.
“This was once-in-a-lifetime performance,” Marks said of the Rocklin choir. “We did not ask for this. I know more about this virus than I care to know from all the research I have done.”
School canceled, dreams on hold
Schools have abruptly announced efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus, many of them postponing and canceling events before schools had even closed.
Rocklin Unified School District canceled all extracurricular events just days before the Placer County superintendents decided to close its schools.
Weeks prior, Riley Flynn, 16, was excited to attend her junior prom at Rocklin.
She had a nail appointment scheduled just three days before the big day. She ordered the boutonniere and corsage, and rented a limo with nine of her friends.
The school postponed the prom. With no new date set, the tags are still hanging from the $300 red dress Flynn purchased from Macy’s.
“We were all upset about it,” she said. “But I don’t think it affected us too much. As long as I get a junior prom, it will be okay.”
With Gov. Gavin Newsom saying Tuesday that he thought it was unlikely that school will resume before summer, many students and parents questioned if their events — sports, dances, competitions — will be rescheduled at all.
“There is a fear that they won’t be able to reschedule it, but I try not to think about it,” Flynn said. “I try to stay positive.”
The Center at 2300, where Rocklin High’s prom was scheduled to take place, had a full calendar this year: weddings, conferences, and quinceaneras.
Several parties have called to cancel. Joshua Olson, assistant director of the event hall, said they are working with all parties to reschedule events.
“This is such an unlikely event,” Olson said. “People need to reschedule, and they shouldn’t do it a month from now.”
Competitions canceled, summer trips still in question
Many regional competitions were well underway before health officials began to discuss the risks of being in large groups and traveling.
Students from schools across the greater Sacramento area formed teams to compete in Destination Imagination, an international, project-based educational program. In early March, dozens of teams presented their projects with creative innovation and teamwork. Some used improvisational skits to solve problems handed to them just minutes before their performance, and others presented community service projects using skits with student-made backdrops.
Dozens of students, like 12-year-old Berkeley Gross, won spots to compete in the state championship in Riverside on April 4. Thousands of students, teachers and parents were expected to attend.
Destination Imagination leaders originally modified the state competition to minimize the risk of exposure to the virus: limit access, teams are only allowed in the venue one hour before their presentations, and the highly anticipated awards ceremony was canceled.
But when Gov. Newsom recommended people restrict events with more than 250 people, Destination Imagination leaders chose to cancel the entire state competition.
Berkeley, whose Warren T. Eich Middle School team placed second in their category, has already competed in the state and global competitions before. She spent two days a week selling snacks after school to raise money for this year’s trip. But as the virus spread, she said she wasn’t too surprised the organizers canceled.
“I was definitely disappointed for the team,” said Berkeley’s mother, Valerie Gross. “All of the teams put in so much hard work, and now we aren’t even in school to present them in an assembly and show off what they’ve done.”
“(Leaders had) conversations with Riverside health officials and people at the state level,” said James McCarthy, regional co-director. “It would be more prudent to cancel.”
It’s unclear how the 2020 Global Finals will take place, which was scheduled to take place in May in Kansas City, Missouri. More than a dozen countries and 45 states may compete virtually, McCarthy said.
“We advised them not to destroy their props, since we are still trying to figure out a way to give teams a solution to compete,” McCarthy said.
Makayla Sudbeck-Gary, 16, is a student at Cosumnes Oaks High School in Elk Grove. She learned about a June trip to Spain through Education First, an independent company that encourages students to travel internationally and immerse themselves in new cultures.
This would be Sudbeck-Gary’s first time outside of the U.S. The trip is not canceled, but she is concerned about the more than $3,000 she raised for the trip through family and friends.
“It’s frustrating not knowing what will happen, and possibly not getting the money back,” she said.
Sudbeck-Gary is filling her days at home by reading classic books including Dante’s “Inferno” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
“I wish school would start soon, because I don’t know how this will affect next year, or how far behind we will be,” she said. “This is difficult.”
Championship game and spring sports
The California Interscholastic Federation is the governing body for high school sports. It is located in Sacramento.
Its premiere event is the CIF State Basketball Championships at Golden 1 Center, home of the NBA’s Kings. This would have been the 40th CIF finals and third in succession held at Golden 1, but the event was canceled as coronavirus concerns swept through the sports world, leading to the suspension of the NBA season and the cancellation of March Madness college basketball last week.
For teams like Sheldon of the Elk Grove Unified School District, this, too, meant the end of a dream season. For seniors, there is no tomorrow, and there may not even be a graduation ceremony. The Huskies set aim on becoming the first team to win three consecutive CIF Northern California Open Division championships.
Sheldon’s season was initially brought to a halt on March 7, when the EGUSD canceled all school activities and closed its schools. Within days, Sheldon was back in the NorCal tournament as the top seed, won a thrilling NorCal semifinal at Dublin and was ready to play Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland in the NorCal finals when the CIF pulled the plug on the entire event when it became clear it had no choice.
“Tough, tough way for our guys to go out,” Sheldon coach Joey Rolling said. “We understand why we couldn’t continue. It’s hard on everyone, especially our seniors.”
Sheldon was a senior-dominated team. Only one of them knows exactly where he is going to college this fall — star guard Marcus Bagley. He is off to Arizona State on a full athletic scholarship. He feels for his teammates who were hoping to catch the eye of college coaches taking a peek at the CIF State finals. Coaches want to see top-tier players against similar competition, and Golden 1 would have afforded that opportunity.
Some of those senior hopefuls still looking for a place to land, and it may be a community college, include: Xavion and Xavier Brown, Darren Tobias and Josh Williams.
“I know we’ll all keep working and doing the best we can,” Williams said. “We didn’t want the season to end like this. No one could have imagined a season ending like this.”
The CIF on Tuesday met with commissioners of its 10 sections that dot the state to discuss the status of spring sports — track and field, baseball, boys volleyball, softball, swimming, diving, tennis — and to see if a sectional, regional and state playoff schedule could still work. But with everything changing by the day, if not the hour, no formal announcement was made.
The commissioners and CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti will meet next month. Nocetti said in a statement, “While the time may come when we have to cancel post-season events, today is not that day. In anticipation of further guidance and directives issued by federal, state and local government agencies regarding COVID-19, the CIF has not determined the future of spring sports events at this time and intends to reconvene with the 10 Section Commissioners on April 3 to revisit this issue. Pending that time, Sections will continue to confer with their local leadership and the State CIF will continue to monitor any directives and recommendations issued from the above entities.
“The CIF will continue to work with our schools and school districts with the health and well-being of student-athletes and school communities as our priority.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 9:55 AM.