As coronavirus fears cancel games and dreams, 3 area teams still aim at NorCal titles
The kids just want to play and people just want to watch.
The 40th CIF Northern California Regional basketball playoffs present an opportunity to compete in school colors for a shot at a championship, the ultimate goal of landing in the CIF State finals Friday and Saturday at Golden 1 Center.
But coronavirus fears have gripped parts of the state, certainly in the Bay Area and the Sacramento region, leading to confusion, and at times, chaos. In a fluid situation, anyone connected to the prep basketball scene is bracing for the next bit of news.
Three Sacramento-area teams are left standing: the Sheldon boys, the two-time defending NorCal Open Division champion, the Colfax girls, the top seed in Division IV, and the Forest Lake Christian girls of Auburn in Division VI.
For now, the CIF State finals are still on as planned.
“The CIF State Basketball Championships are on for Friday and Saturday at Golden 1 Center,” CIF Media Relations Director Rebecca Brutlag said.
But there is still concern over coronavirus and it has already derailed the season for three Bay Area powerhouse programs, two of them on Monday.
Late Monday morning, NorCal D-I top seed Riordan of San Francisco had to withdraw from the boys tournament. Riordan’s game against De La Salle of Concord was delayed from Saturday to Monday night after a student at Riordan tested positive for the virus. The postponement was to allow more time to assess the situation.
Wrote coach Joey Curtain in a text to Mitch Stephens of MaxPreps, “Our season is over due to the coronavirus case at our school. All school activities have been suspended and campus shut down. I just feel for our seniors.”
De La Salle thus advances to the NorCal finals on Tuesday and will play Campolindo of Moraga, which eliminated second-seeded Capital Christian.
Defending state D-II girls champion Menlo of Atherton withdrew from the tournament Friday, hours before a rescheduled D-I quarterfinal game at Bishop O’Dowd in Oakland — and days after the school was shut down due to a relative of a campus staff member testing positive for coronavirus.
Early Monday evening, the boys team from Lincoln of San Francisco had its season halted, the ball rolling on that possibility on Sunday night in an email from the San Francisco Unified School District declared it is “canceling all non-essential events to all SFUSD schools.” That was effective Monday and stretches through March 22. Second-seeded Lincoln had to forfeit its D-IV title game Tuesday against Brookside Christian of Stockton, which advances by default.
The CIF will not and cannot overrule any decisions of a school district, CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti said Sunday, adding, “We’re always hopeful to making it work. We want these games to be played.”
Sheldon can relate to the anguish.
It has gone through an emotional twister without even playing a game. Sheldon’s season was stunningly shelved Saturday afternoon when the Elk Grove Unified School District announced all of its schools would be closed this week and that all activities would be canceled effective immediately due to concerns that a student in the district might have been infected. That included Saturday’s NorCal Open Division quarterfinal against Dublin at Cosumnes River College.
This caught the attention of elected officials led by Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna, who held a news conference Sunday to address concerns. Said Mayor Darrell Steinberg, “Health is first, but let’s not panic. Let’s live our lives!”
Moments after Sunday’s newsconference, Serna, Steinberg, state Sen. Richard Pan, City Coucilwoman Angelique Ashby, City Councilman Eric Guerra, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, Assemblyman Jim Cooper, and superintendent of Sacramento County schools Dave Gordon reached out to Nocetti of the CIF to share thoughts and offer support in getting Sheldon back in the tournament. The EGUSD approved of Sheldon’s tournament return, on the condition that it seems safe.
Sheldon (27-5) had to surrender its home-court advantage as the top seed, but Huskies coaches and players were delighted to still have a season. Dublin is 24-6.
“We’ll play anywhere,” Sheldon star guard Marcus Bagley said. “We’ve all worked so hard for this.”
The Huskies wanted to practice on Monday but was held in limbo. The players and coaches were not allowed on the Sheldon practice with the school closure mandaged by the EGUSD. So, what to do? Shoot on the blacktop?
Riordan coach Joe Curtin told the San Jose Mercury News on Monday night that the integrity of the NorCal brackets will have been officially compromised if Sheldon is not cleared to play, saying, “The integrity’s not there. You lose the two No. 1 seeds in Open and D1, so people advance just by default. It doesn’t seem right. It’s like there should be an asterisk there. It doesn’t seem to be the fair and right way to go about ending this tournament. You can’t have the No. 1 seed in Open and the No. 1 seed in D1 not play. You just can’t do it.”
As for any suggestions of postponing the entire NorCal and CIF State finals, that is not an option. CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti said Golden 1 Center has already been booked and secured. He also braces for any more news from districts across the state.
“It’s changing day to day, sometimes hourly,” Nocetti said Monday night.
Or the notion that the CIF can overrule a school district and strong-arm a team into a bracket?
“It’s not that we won’t,” he said, ‘we can’t. It not something we’d do.
Colfax (30-4) is in a NorCal final for the fourth time, looking to move to 4-0 in such games. The first two NorCal title wins were in 1983 and ‘84, leading to back-to-back CIF State D-III championships under coach John Alba. The last Colfax NorCal winner was in 1998 under coach Jim Ryan. Now Falcons coach Rich Simpton has his cohesive group ready for another title run. Let by stars Grace Bliss and Jazzy Owens, Colfax will host Sierra Pacific (28-7) of Hanford on Tuesday night.
“We’re playing so well right now,” Simpton said of his team’s 19-game winning streak. “We play hard, share the ball and get after it. We’re fun to watch.”
Forest Lake Christian’s season will definitely end Tuesday. Not because of any virus fears but because the D-VI tournament ends at the NorCal finals.
Seeded third, FLC (25-5) has already claimed the Sac-Joaquin Section championship and now plays at No. 2 Redding Christian (22-6).
For complete cif brackets, visit cifstate.org.
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 12:03 PM with the headline "As coronavirus fears cancel games and dreams, 3 area teams still aim at NorCal titles."