The grim truth: High school football faces a 4th and super long to start on time
Coaches are inherent competitors, heavy on outlook and optimism.
But the coronavirus pandemic that has jolted lives, shuttered schools, crippled small businesses and has left a considerable wake of heartache and confusion has high school football coaches across the country in a state of quandary.
What to do with restless student-athletes, and how to do it? Or this: Should we even be doing any sort of group gatherings, regardless of every safe approach?
A good many coaches in the greater Sacramento region continue to engage in modified summer sports conditioning with social distancing, masks and sanitizer liquid by the drum full on hand, all allowed under strict district guidelines. Others have endured stop-and-start conditioning sessions while navigating through spikes in the coronavirus that preys on those with preexisting health conditions.
The fear here and anywhere is an outbreak among young people. A Missouri camp this week was dulled at the revelation that 82 teenagers and staffers tested positive from the virus.
“That’s when it gets scary — what if a high school player or any student, gets the virus around here, or if that student or a coach or a teacher dies, and then what?” said Dave Hoskins, a teacher and coach in this region since the mid 1960s, now an assistant at Cosumnes Oaks High in Elk Grove.
Hoskins is in his 70s, making him a high-risk candidate of the virus that especially harms older people. His family fumes that he is coaching, out of love and concern. He continues to coach while being “super careful,” he said.
Most area football programs have engaged in two workouts a week. In normal times, it would be up to six days a week. The stop-and-start sessions regionally include Dixon in Solano County, Marysville in Yuba County, Lincoln in Placer County and Bear River and Nevada Union in Nevada County.
Christian Brothers in the heart of Sacramento County stopped drills completely last week, to err on the side of extreme caution. Franklin of Elk Grove didn’t start football drills at all. Coach Evan Boylan said he can live with this decision, backed by his administration with no concerning “blowback” from parents, Boylan said.
“We made the decision to hold off any drills,” Boylan said. “Every coach I’ve talked to about this, the modified workouts, everyone wonders, ‘what are we doing? What is the point of this?’”
All levels of athletics are treading cautiously amid these pandemic waters. Professional sports are inching toward the starting blocks to start seasons, from FC Republic to Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the NBA.
But every day seems to be fraught with concern. Said Buster Posey of the Giants to the media last week, expressing reservations, “What are we doing?” Posey announced Friday he was skipping the MLB reboot of the season.
July 20 a key day
On the prep level, coaches, athletes, parents and fans await the July 20 announcement from the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body of prep sports. That’s when the CIF will outline a 2020-2021 sports calendar.
Could sports such as football be pushed to the winter or spring? Or canceled completely? How does one social distance in a contact sport? Will fans be allowed at games, and what sort of crushing consequences could there be if the revenue from sports such as football dries up? Could some parts of the state with low COVID-19 numbers offer football in the fall while other parts of the state do not?
All questions are pondered by decision-makers. We do know this: CIF officials and commissioners from the 10 sections across the state are in the business of high school involvement and activity. They’re also in it to protect student-athletes. Some may argue schools are afraid of lawsuits. No, they’re afraid of students and faculty and families getting sick.
I’m optimistic that high school sports will start this coming academic year, but I do not know when. I do know how important activities are to the development and experiences for students, their campus and communities. But the coronavirus concerns hover like ominous clouds, including in New Mexico, where Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced this week that high school football and other contact sports will be pushed later into the acacemic year, in the spring. Utah, meanwhile, announced Friday football would be played as scheduled this fall.
The dominoes are falling already in the college ranks, from community colleges on up. The California Community College Athletic Association announced that all sports will be pushed into the winter and spring months. You can bet that caught the attention of high school programs in California. The Ivy League also announced that no fall sports will be played in 2020. The delays are in an effect a way to buy time to figure out this pandemic.
‘It just doesn’t feel right’
Boylan said he feels for his Franklin student-athletes, who yearn to be together. He has two older coaches in Al Hooker and Ron Kerekes, football lifers since the 1960s, he wonders about. Despite being higher risk, Kerekes and Hooker want to coach. And kids want to play.
“I understand wanting to get kids together, on campus,” Boylan said. “But this virus is serious. A kid with asthma, we’d have to tell them we shouldn’t do these workouts. Or kids who live with grandparents, people at the at-risk age, you probably shouldn’t be out here. It just doesn’t feel right. I felt a huge weight off my shoulders when I made the decision to not start drills.
“If we get the clearance from the CIF and section to start real football practices on July 29, then the worst consequence of holding off is missing two-and-a-half weeks of modified workouts, no weight room, no football, 10 guys per coach. I can deal with that. There are some real consequences in coming back too soon.”
And this from Boylan, “I really don’t see any way we can start the high school season on time.”
Boylan isn’t the only one wondering that.
As coronavirus numbers climb across the state, high school programs from San Diego on up through the state have suspended activities. Youth sports in much of the state never received approval to get going.In football-mad Texas, Dallas superintendent of schools Michael Hinojosa told Garrett Haake of MSNBC this week, “That’s a true contact sport. I don’t see how we can pull that off.”
Bay Area schools also wonder about football in the fall, if at all.
Rumors and confusion
Misinformation also creates confusion for coaches and programs. Internet speculation last month was ripe with gossip that Marysville halted football conditioning because players and coaches tested positive. Not so.
An assistant coach within the program was initially told that he might have been exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus while at a dental office. There was even confusion on that timing. That coach tested negative twice and drills resumed.
At Lincoln, Zebras football coach Chris Bean heard the nonsense that some of his players had tested positive, leading to a shut down of drills. Not so.
“Gotta love the rumor mill,” Bean said. “We do not have any players with confirmed cases. Not one.”
He added, “This is not an ideal situation, but what part of our current environment is? Getting these kids outside and connected in a safe environment is very important to us. Kids need to socialize. Kids need to connect. Kids need to compete. As long as we believe we can do this in a safe and productive manner, we are going to keep moving forward.”
An obligation to condition despite concerns
Placer coach Joey Montoya said these are challenges no coach ever expected to endure. He said drills have gone well, unlike any he has experienced with modifications.
“I’m concerned for sure and really hope we have a season,” Montoya said. “It’s hard to fathom we start (official practices) on July 27th with where we are with rising virus numbers and some counties going back to Phase 2. We need to get to that Phase 4 so we can have a football season. These seniors get one chance to play football for the rest of their lives, with the exception of the rare few who will play college ball.”
As for talk that the virus isn’t as harmful to young people as it is to older ones, Montoya said, “I understand that it’s a very tough decision on having football and there are so many factors to it, but as a 14-18-year-old it will be a tough pill to swallow that your season has been stripped by pandemic that doesn’t affect your age group much. Kids don’t always see the big picture. I understand and acknowledge the danger of COVID-19, and if I were an at-risk person, or if I had a child that was an at-risk child, I would keep them away.”
Coach Eric Cavaliere, of defending Sac-Joaquin Section Division I champion Oak Ridge, said he feels an obligation to get any drills in as possible while mindful of safety. Oak Ridge football has been a source of regional pride in El Dorado Hills since the school opened in the early 1980s. Kids grow up wanting to be Trojans.
“Workouts have been going well, considering the circumstances,” Cavailere said. “There isn’t a whole lot of football taking place, but it’s great to be able to work with our players, even in a very limited capacity. The players have been incredible.“
The coach added, “It is frustrating for them and all of us, but everyone understands this is what we have to do for now. The concern, of course, is someone getting sick. That’s the last thing we want to see happen, and that includes players, staff and families. I do feel we are doing everything possible to ensure that doesn’t happen on the field.”
But kids will be kids, as coaches understand. They live to socialize.
“With teenagers, they will be teenagers, and it’s very common for them to be around each other off the field, and most likely without the same level of caution that we have on the field,” Cavaliere said. “I am confident our kids will get through this but it could be difficult to maintain our enthusiasm if this is how it is going to be for an extended period.”
Christian Brothers football coach John Wiley made the decision to pull the plug on summer drills to prevent heartache, he said, while urging his players to not gather in crowds without masks, if at all.
“I’m thinking about the big picture here,” he said of suspending drills. “The kids may not understand, and those on the outside may not understand, but we have to concern ourselves with the masses and the trickle-down effect. With the spike in coronavirus in Sacramento, I thought the best decision was to stop. In my opinion, let’s wait until the CIF makes its announcement in July 20. It’s about safety right now, and we have to be patient, and the parents have been great. Some have reached out and said they totally understand.”
Parents express mixed views
Not all parents understand. Facebook has a parent-driven group — Let them Play! Bring Back High School Athletics — that is a reflection of countering views.
Many lash out at elected officials, be it Gov. Gavin Newsom or Mayor Darrell Steinberg, and blame them and area superintendents for over reacting to the pandemic. Others express caution, stressing that science and test numbers should outweigh a drive to get back out and compete.
The flames were engulfed this week when President Trump suggested in a tweet that Democratic lawmakers want schools to remain in a distance-learning mode in the fall for “political reasons” and that he may cut back funding to school districts that do not open fully with students on campus.
One line of thinking is if kids are not allowed on campus, then how can there be team sports? Or, if kids are indeed allowed on campus, then how could there not be sports? And coaches and teachers across the country wonder what will happen if a teacher or coach gets sick with the virus. What then?
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said this week in a conference call to governors, “Ultimately, it’s not a matter of if schools need to open, it’s a matter of how. Schools must reopen. They must be fully operational. And how that happens is best left to education and community leaders,” she added, “there are no excuses for sowing fear and for making excuses...”
Boylan, the Franklin football coach, said differing views on when and how to resume the academic year, “has divided the country. It’s become an incredibly political thing in America. It doesn’t have to be.”
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 10:41 AM.