‘Status of the remainder of the CIF’ basketball championships to be announced Thursday
The high school basketball season appears to be on the brink in a postseason dulled by mounting coronavirus concerns and confirmed cases.
The California Interscholastic Federation said in a statement that it was in discussion late Wednesday night with the state executive officers about “the status of the remainder of the CIF State Championship Basketball Tournament.”
The statement was from CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti, who has closely monitored COVID-19 concerns since the start of the regional playoffs, especially so after the Menlo girls team and the boys teams from San Francisco’s Riordan and Lincoln high schools withdrew from the tournament on Tuesday tied to the virus.
The CIF State championship games, the crowning weekend for high school competition in California, are scheduled to be held at Golden 1 Center on Friday and Saturday. But with the NBA’s announcement on Wednesday night that it had suspended the season, that surely caught the attention of Nocetti and his staff.
Wednesday night’s Kings-Pelicans game was canceled before it started. Fans booed as they were told to leave the arena.
The conclusion that seems most likely is the CIF ending the season with the thinking that if Golden 1 isn’t deemed safe for an NBA game, then how could it be for a high school event? In that event, the Northern and Southern California champions over six girls and six boys divisions would end with a victory.
And there is the Sheldon High School boys team, top-ranked in Northern California in each of the past three seasons.
The Huskies are scheduled to play Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland on Thursday night at Cosumnes River College in the NorCal Open Division final. The NorCal Open schedule was pushed back after the Elk Grove Unified School District on Saturday ceased all student activities for a week to better monitor the virus situation.
Sheldon was placed back in the tournament after the EGUSD conferred with Sacramento County health officials and was cleared by the district to play Tuesday at Dublin, a thrilling 59-58 win.
O’Dowd coach Lou Richie said after Saturday’s NorCal Open semifinal win over Mitty of San Jose that it might have been the last game of the season. He sensed the coronavirus might create a domino affect and there might not be a state final, and he told reporters how proud he was that his team competed as if it were a state final.
Sheldon coach Joey Rollings was similarly proud of the grit of his team at Dublin, punctuated by the Huskies making late stands to hold on, leading to a team celebration.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 9:31 PM.