‘As long as we’re playing, we’re happy’: High school sports deal with COVID-19 chaos
High school coaches and athletic directors brace for anything now when they reach for their cellphones or turn on their computers.
Will surging COVID-19 numbers lead to more canceled practices and games or seasons? Or worse, will schools suddenly return to the distance-learning model that cast such a dreary shadow a year ago in making for an academic year to (not) remember?
COVID-19 remains as the uninvited visitor, crashing the party as it thunders along like storm clouds.
“We used to be so routine-based, so used to what we do every day as teachers and coaches,” Rio Americano High School boys’ basketball coach Chris Jones said. “It’s scary. We brace for ‘what’s next?’ every day. An opposing coach texts you and you immediately think, ‘Uh oh!’”
The longtime coach added, “I feel for the kids. We thought we might be past a lot of this COVID stuff by now, but now some of us wonder how long will this go on for. Months? Years? We’ve got to find a way to live with COVID because as coaches, we don’t have any answers. We just want to coach and kids just want to play.”
In a sense, there has been progress. A year ago, the high school basketball season did not play out, following a football schedule - and that of all other sports - that did not get started due to the pandemic. Prep sports seasons were squeezed into the spring to give teams and athletes at least a chance to play some games so the entire academic year wasn’t a complete wash. Still, there were continuous stop-and-starts during the chaotic spring seasons, headaches and anguish. There were no playoffs to reward a season well done.
Football played out with little hitch in the fall with sold-out crowds the norm. There were few postponements and only a handful of cancellations. Basketball got off to an encouraging start this season in November, with large crowds for many, but the predicted surge from the omicron variant and holiday gatherings led to the current COVID-19 surges. Gov. Gavin Newsom told the media this week, “Just a few more weeks” of patience is needed, which comes across as an old tune to those who remember when he said similar things to “flatten the curve” when the pandemic first hit.
“We’re gonna get through this,” Newsom said earlier this week, a day after California set an all-time high with more than 143,000 new COVID cases and when the state set an all-time seven-day positivity record rate of 23 percent.
Sports on pause across the state
Game delays, postponements and cancellations have become too common across the country. More and more regional schools are allowing limited fans, four tickets per player, for example, and coaches fear that fans at some point won’t be allowed at all to help mitigate the spread of the virus. Schools in Oregon have returned to distance learning. Some in California have as well but none locally.
In Los Angeles and Oakland, high school sports have been put on pause in an effort to slow the spread. The governing body California Interscholastic Federation announced it lifted its no-contact Sunday policy, allowing for games or practices to be held on that day in an effort to not have games completely scratched. Sunday is an otherwise mandated day off from games or practices.
But the CIF will not make the call on what happens during the regular season for basketball, wrestling or soccer. The decision to delay or cancel games is up to each school and each district. Come playoffs, that’s a CIF matter, and the postseasons for prep winter sports starts next month.
What adds to the difficulty of playing games is area leagues often involve up to three different counties. One county may mandate masks indoors, such as in a gymnasium, and others may not. Some school districts such as Sacramento City Unified School District require daily COVID-19 testing for students. The Elk Grove Unified and San Juan Unified require once-a-week testing. Some schools in Placer County no longer require testing if there are no sickness symptoms.
And in some cases, coaches have stopped a basketball game in progress to pull a player whose test came up positive. How can this happen during a game? Sometimes, it takes that long for results to come back.
“I call this a ninja, a virus that we can’t see but know is there and can come out of nowhere and attack and disrupt everything,” Grant boys’ basketball coach Deonard Wilson said. “I’ve had it. I know how serious it can be. It got me good. Thought I might die. We have to take this seriously. At first, players didn’t take it seriously. They do now. They have to.”
The coach added, “It’s frustrating but I do think that the powers that be are doing the best they can with something we’ve never dealt with before. It’s still much better than last year or in the spring.”
Back to distance learning?
Wilson spoke for all coaches when he said the “absolute fear” is having seasons canceled and schools thrust back to distance learning
“That’s a major concern because of the mental toll concerns, of kids not being around other kids,” Wilson said. “Kids this age need to be on campus, need to be in class, need to be in sports. We all want some sort of normalcy, but not having that has become our new normal.”
Grant is hosting a Martin Luther King schedule of games on Saturday in Del Paso Heights. In an effort to do their part, Wilson said that after each game, fans will exit the gym in opposite corners and the venue will be sprayed and wiped down. Fans will be required to wear masks. Players and coaches on the bench will wear masks.
“Anything we can to get these games in,” Wilson, the Grant coach, said. “These kids need these games and their communities need these games.”
McClatchy game drought
At McClatchy, in the city district, the Lions girls’ and boys’ basketball teams have waited weeks to play a game as they ward off a COVID-19 surge within their rosters. The girls play at Laguna Creek on Friday night, the team’s first game since Dec. 27. The McClatchy boys last played on Dec. 7.
“Crazy times,” is how McClatchy athletic director Rob Feickert described the COVID-19 continuance. “I feel like Bob Barker on ‘Let’s Make a Deal” as we try to reschedule.”
At Elk Grove, where the Thundering Herd boys are talking of a run for a Delta League and Sac-Joaquin Section basketball championship, coach Dustin Monday said, “I may sound naive, but I think we’re going to get through this. Anyone who says this isn’t a big deal because it’s only high school sports, that’s lame. If I ask those people if they spent 10 years of their life practicing for a craft and you knew that was coming to a culmination, how does that sound? It means everything to these kids to play, everywhere. For a lot of coaches, we’re helping our players understand what it all means and how to deal with it, because they don’t have guidance at home. Some are freaking out because they want to be at school and playing sports.
He added, “I’ve had our kids in masks in practice. I get it. It’s no fun. It sucks. It’s a nuisance. But if we want to play in March, in the playoffs, we’ve got to be careful of our social norms and do our part to get past this.”
In Placer County at Rocklin High, longtime boys’ basketball coach Steve Taylor recalled how daily testing during the spring season resulted in zero positive tests for any of his varsity, junior varsity or freshmen players. Testing stopped for that district earlier this season, unless symptoms arise.
“We went away from testing when Placer County Health guidelines changed, so it became a volunteer testing thing,” Taylor said. “I keep testing myself for my own peace of mind. I’ve been vaccinated and boosted. I want to make sure I don’t spread it to our players. My dad is 90 and my mom is 84. I want them to be at our games, and they are with masks.. We mask in the weight room and when we can and need to. Do what you can do.”
Coaches have also had to adjust how they coach.
“For ever, if a player said he didn’t want to practice because of a headache, you get on him,” Burbank basketball coach Lindsey Ferrell said. “Now if a player has a headache, you send him home and get him tested. We have to adjust.”
Rio Americano’s Jones, the veteran coach, said he is impressed with how players have handled these hurdles.
“I’m not sure I’d be able to do it when I was in high school,” he said. “I would have been moping and upset, but our kids roll with the punches. We’re told we can only play with limited fans against El Camino, and that’s what we do. As long as we’re playing, we’re happy. That’s what we all want.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM.