Game on: Sacramento County youth sports get the green light from state to play games

Play ball.

Those are the sweet words for Sacramento County youth sports teams Tuesday as the county’s rate of coronavirus cases dropped low enough to allow sports to begin practices and games for the first time in a year.

The state two weeks ago revamped youth sports guidelines, saying outdoor sports could resume once a county’s rate of cases per 100,000 residents dropped below 14. Sacramento’s rate hit 12.0 in an update released by the state Tuesday.

Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties all were under 14 last week; Sacramento County came in at 15.3.

The rate drop means everything from Little League baseball to high school football can officially start practicing and playing games for the first time in a year. Prep football ordinarily starts its season in August and wraps up in December, but teams have been limited to conditioning drills out of concerns about spreading the coronavirus.

The California Department of Public Health announced last month outdoor sports such as football, baseball, softball, soccer, water polo and lacrosse could 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.

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.

Football teams in the state of California can play until April 17, giving most teams four or five games. There will be no section or state playoffs and area teams will have the flexibility to schedule whoever they can play, as along as both schools are in a county that has a per-capita COVID-19 case rate of fewer than 14 per 100,000 residents.

High school football programs within the Elk Grove Unified School District, the largest in Northern California, can now use pads, aligning with neighboring counties where those programs started padded practices Friday. Monterey Trail football coach T.J. Ewing said, “we are praying for pads (Tuesday),” as his neighboring schools in the EGUSD formally await approval from the school district. Athletic directors within that district have told coaches to schedule opponents.

Sheldon High softball, a longtime regional power, started team tryouts Monday and plays an opener March 9. Coach Mary Jo Truesdale said in an effort to jump ahead of the curve, her entire five-person varsity coaching staff has been vaccinated. Players and coaches wear masks in workouts and drills and will in practices and games.

“Isn’t this wonderful,” Truesdale said of the weather and the dawn of a season. “We’re allowed to go. When you consider, we walked off the field last March 9, season over, and didn’t step back on until February, it has been a long time coming. The kids are excited, just happy.”

High school sports aren’t the only ones who have been in limbo. River Park Youth Baseball President Jason Stewart said kids in his league, which is part of Babe Ruth Baseball, played one or two games last March before the pandemic wiped out the spring schedule and the entire fall season.

Stewart, the father of twin 12-year-old boys, said the nearly 300 kids in his league will have an added skip in their steps knowing they have games coming up, just as they did when they got clearance to begin practices in early February.

“For me, it’s just seeing the difference in my kids, as far as their mood, their desire to get back outside and be with their friends and just play baseball,” Stewart said. “There’s the smile on these kids’ faces that has been missing for the past year, because they just keep getting pushed back and not seeing their friends or their classrooms. You can just see these kids are really happy to be out there.”

Youth baseball still faces some hurdles before games start. Stewart said the city of Sacramento and county will will have to sign off on teams starting play, with the first games scheduled for March 27. He added the city and county generally have not had stricter regulations than recommended by the state, so he had hope that kids will soon get to play games.

Stewart spoke Tuesday as he hit refresh on the state data dashboard, waiting to see if Sacramento went below the threshold of 14 cases per 100,000 residents.

“We’ve been anticipating and sitting on the edge of our seat,” he said. “We have been obviously watching real close how things have been going for the last couple months.”

In Elk Grove, Mike Cody doubles as the athletic director at Franklin High School and as an assistant coach for two Little League teams for Laguna Youth Baseball. He does the master scheduling for those Little League teams.

“We’ve been on shutdown, and it’s hard to manage that, then you get excited thinking we can get started, then lose momentum, and the balance was to not get too excited or too down,” Cody said. “It looks like we’ll have a Little League season, and that’s great for kids. We’re recharged at the high school level and for Little League teams. I’m happy for the kids in Elk Grove, a great opportunity to get back in the flow of things.”

This article was updated at 11:47 a.m. March 2 to note the River Park Park Youth Baseball group is part of Babe Ruth Baseball.

This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 10:51 AM.