Prep football is a go, but logistics could sideline some Sacramento-area teams
Eric Cavaliere witnessed firsthand how fast good news spreads in El Dorado Hills.
Peering out from his health class Friday during lunch hour, the longtime Oak Ridge High School football coach soaked in the glee of his student-athletes after months of glum expressions.
This lot of teenagers was practically doing cartwheels in the quad, Cavaliere said, because football can kick off in the coming weeks in counties that allow it amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The state Department of Public Health announced its latest guidelines for youth sports, in effect green-lighting seasons after nearly a year on pause due to the pandemic.
In short, the guidelines stipulate that outdoor sports such as football, baseball, softball, soccer, water polo and lacrosse can officially start practices Feb. 26 in any county that has a per-capita COVID-19 case rate of fewer than 14 per 100,000 residents. Regional counties Sacramento, Placer, Yolo and El Dorado are either under that threshold or expected to reach it soon.
What Oak Ridge students translated all the data to was this: genuine opportunity.
“I’ve got 37 different text conversations going on all at once, and it’s full-steam ahead,” Cavaliere said excitedly by phone. “The wheels of education and government can sometimes turn slowly, but we’re getting there, and it’s fantastic. I see my football kids through my window on campus here, high-fiving and hugging, which they probably shouldn’t be doing during COVID, but they’re pumped.”
The lads can be forgiven for the embraces. They’ve earned it.
Weekly testing challenge
Now the real challenges loom. This includes logistics.
High-contact sports such as football will require weekly COVID testing of players and coaches, similar to other states that had fall or will have spring football. Staff will be needed to monitor tests, track results, compile accordingly, but it can be done because kids and coaches will be driven to find a way to make it work.
“It’ll be a logistical nightmare, getting everything organized, all the testing — everything,” Grant athletic director and assistant football coach Carl Reed said. “It’s hard enough before this new testing with workouts and protocols, but kids have been waiting. Our kids are always resilient. They want to do something, be somewhere, and safety is everything. We’ll make sure of that.”
Spring football will be a blueprint example of how to approach fall football. Spring ball will not include a postseason, already scratched from calendars to avoid football spilling into May and beyond. Push fall seasons back a month? No chance and not even worth a debate. Find a way to make this work is the theme now.
No playoffs, no big deal
The old motto of one day at a time? It has never been more defined than now.
Coaches and athletes since the introduction of the regional playoffs in 1970 have had layers of seasons: nonleague games, league games, playoff games. Now there will only be between four to six regular-season games, with an emphasis on playing when and where you can.
Rain? Mud? Wind? Bring it on. This is playoff weather, with overcast skies and coolish temperatures. You can bet those hitting a blocking sled in the ice and snow up by the Oregon border won’t care that they can’t feel their fingers or toes. They’re hitting. They’re back in the game.
“We’d be good playing one game, three games, four — any,” Sheldon quarterback and team leader Sean Nixon said. “We don’t care what time of year it is now. We can play. Players before, we might complain about the wind or rain. Now? It puts everything in perspective. We’re just excited to have a chance to play.”
Spring football won’t work everywhere
Coaches compete. Kids compete. We know parents compete.
The goal should not be trying to get that scholly — scholarship — or shooting for championship rings. The goal should be getting games in, of proving it can be done.. Or like Pleasant Grove coach Matt Costa likes to say, “any game will be a victory in itself.”
Said Inderkum coach Casey Taylor, “Really, it’s the love of the game, competing, bonding, is why we all do this. To have some light at the end of the tunnel is great. I think we can all make it work.”
It’ll work in some areas but not all. That’s the grim truth.
The organized coaches with administrative and community support will find a way. But for all of their efforts, will there be enough manpower to have freshman, junior varsity and varsity football programs, given the sheer number of bodies and testing needed? Might some schools just go with varsity games?
“I know it can be challenging for other schools running all three levels, but at Casa Roble, this will absolutely not deter us from running a freshman program,” Casa Roble coach Chris Horner said. “There will be more effort required on our part to record and keep track, but we have enough kids in the program who deserve the opportunity to be able to play. We will make it work!”
Districts must approve seasons
For all of the good of Friday’s news, there are always storm clouds.
It still comes down to each school district to formally approve the start of seasons. This is not a CIF or county or state health decision to make. The CIF lays out a schedule window and county health provides safety guidelines. Some schools that are not doing on-campus learning may opt out of spring football, the challenges too large to conquer.
That the state is covering costs for COVID testing is a game-changer. Coaches were concerned that if it was up to each district to provide funding, it would create a massive gap of haves and have-nots, where the affluent schools would have games and others nothing but dashed hope, and that would have buckled prep sports as we know it.
But what could stall progress and make things trend badly is if people celebrate in the streets, or pack into eateries or the quad or the parking lot because they miss each other. Social distancing still means, in effect, “Stay away.”
Team captains know what it means. Coaches, too.
“We talk about it in players-only discussions,” said Sean Nixon, the Sheldon quarterback. “I keep saying, ‘Let’s keep wearing masks. Keep in small groups. Maybe even wear a mask in drive-through, or with your friends.’ This is our only chance. We don’t want to blow it.”