Prep volleyball players, coaches say state’s new sports plan is a ‘slap in the face’
Anger. Confusion. Frustration.
Those are the emotions players, coaches and parents of regional volleyball on Friday. That’s when the California Department of Public Health announced that the most visible fall sport would be moving from the moderate orange color tier to yellow, which, in effect, could spell the end of a season that never got going.
The CDPH also announced outdoor sports such as football, baseball, softball, soccer, water polo and lacrosse can officially start practices on 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.
High-contact sports such as football and water polo will require weekly COVID testing of players and coaches, similar to other states that had fall or will have spring football. The main takeaway for the volleyball community is: If a contact sport like football can get the green light to play, why can’t this sport? Volleyball is a minimal contact indoor sport with a sudden question of what next. The boys volleyball season, normally scheduled for the spring, is also on hold.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Woodcreek girls and boys volleyball coach Brian Jew said. “There are college teams currently playing in California with some guidelines that make it possible to stay safe. My hopes are that with things changing daily, that things will move in a more positive direction for the players. The connection of high school and athletics is needed. The effects it is having on the student athlete is alarming.”
Lincoln girls coach Jeff Deter added, “I’m excited that outdoor sports are coming back and that the high schools are getting some kids to be able to have a season, and I do appreciate that. But at the same time, I feel very badly for all these kids, especially the seniors that are losing this season. The reasoning behind things just don’t seem to be making a lot of sense.”
If volleyball and other indoor sports such as basketball and wrestling stay in the yellow tier, the odds of having a season go down exponentially.
“We were holding out hope that by maybe mid-April or late April, we could play some volleyball games when we got into the orange tier, that was kind of our goal,” said Bear River girls volleyball coach Matt MacDonald. “We had already scheduled quite a few games for May, hoping that would be our time frame. Now it seems virtually impossible. It is kind of like a death sentence.”
CIF weighs in
Sac-Joaquin Section assistant section commissioner Will DeBoard said his office, one of 10 CIF sections in the state, is hopeful indoor sports can have a season this academic year. The CIF wants kids to play. He was also surprised volleyball was moved from the orange to the yellow tier.
“We’re definitely governed by those by those color tiers and where they are,” DeBoard said. “It came as a little bit of a surprise that volleyball was moved from orange to yellow, but at the same time, it seems like the state health is saying that they really want to keep an eye on indoor sports versus outdoor sports. That’s kind of what’s going on across the country, where a lot of sports are being played. The outdoor sports are happening without much of a hitch. The indoor sports, there’s a little more complication there. Honestly, what it seems like what people are doing is a lot of our leagues are moving volleyball to later in the year, and hopefully things will improve as we move forward.”
He added, “There’s been a little bit of talk about outdoor volleyball, just like there’s been a little bit of talk about outdoor basketball and even outdoor wrestling. Those sports are not CIF sports, so if schools want to do that, that’s perfectly fine by us. They should be following the color tier guidelines, but at the same time, the guidelines have really opened things up to allow them to play.”
What about boys volleyball?
When the CIF canceled high school sports in March last year in an effort to quell the spread of coronavirus, most boys’ seasons ended before they started.
“With the move from orange to yellow, that puts boys volleyball, doubles tennis and doubles badminton as the only three of all-CIF sanctioned sports that looks at the possibility of not having a season two years in a row,” Jesuit boys volleyball coach Sara Marks said. “Girls did have a season last year, so they are in a bit of a different situation as it pertains to only having one season in jeopardy.”
Sara’s son, Logan, is a freshman volleyball player at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Her younger son Taylor is a senior at Jesuit, also committed to play at Cal Lutheran. She, like other coaches in the section, has looked into playing outdoor volleyball.
“It was more heartbreaking for him to lose his season than it was to lose prom or have a normal graduation,” Sara said about her son Logan. “We do the best we can with playing and practicing grass volleyball, but it isn’t the same as being in the gym. We are grateful to be able to have an outdoor option though and try to make the best of it. This past week we practiced on Wednesday in the wind. It was extremely hard to do, but we were together and had some laughs together about it.”
California Volleyball Coaches Association
The Golden State HSFC Coaches Association was formed in December by California prep football coaches, an advocacy group to champion the cause of a safe return to sports.
Bill Evans, the boys and girls volleyball coach at Wheatland High, has a similar plan. He recently created the CA High School Volleyball Coaches Group that has more than 150 members on Facebook as of Friday night. Another group called “Let Them Play - Indoor Sports” was also created this week. It has more than 350 members.
The goal of the groups is to collect data of workouts from over the summer, similar to what the Golden State Coaches Association did in football for their plea to return to action.
“We’re working with the CA Let Them Play leadership on an action plan to help make the case for a safe return to indoor volleyball,” Evans said. “We don’t know how the decision was made to move volleyball from the orange tier to the yellow tier. Orange tier, maybe we still have a chance, to the yellow tier, where that chance goes way down.”
Club games going on in Rancho Cordova
The current restrictions aren’t stopping club volleyball teams from competing.
During President’s Day weekend, club volleyball scrimmages took place in Rancho Cordova. Teams from all over Northern California, ages 13-18, competed. According to multiple people, the tournament was rigorous with temperature checks, masks and a limited number of fans and parents were in attendance.
James Todd is a longtime club coach. He took a team to Reno this weekend to compete. He is also the head girls volleyball coach at Christian Brothers. Despite club volleyball being the pathway for most girls to earn athletic scholarships, Todd said high school volleyball is important.
“How many people dream to play Holy Court (against St. Francis) their senior year?” Todd said. “A lot of the kids at Christian Brothers enjoy (playing) high school volleyball more because they get to play in front of their friends and family. That really means a lot to them.”
Allison Mick is a senior on the Rocklin girls volleyball team. She hopes her team can have a season to defend a Sierra Foothill League crown.
“Hearing the news that volleyball got changed to the yellow tier after football got the green light, in addition to having their COVID testing paid for by the state, was definitely not something I expected to happen and was honestly a slap in the face to all of the indoor sport athletes,” Mick said. “It’s hard to understand the rationale of letting a very high contact sport like football go before volleyball, where at most the contact is an ankle stepped on under the net. I know the state is trying to keep us safe, but I’m pretty sure most volleyball players would agree to all wear a mask when playing, to minimize the potential of COVID spreading when players are face to face at the net.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.