Frustration mounts with delays in youth sports seasons

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The status of the high school sports season and other youth sports leagues seem as uncertain as ever, and frustrations among student athletes, their parents and coaches seem to be increasing every day of the coronavirus pandemic.

The CIF Southern Section office announced on Tuesday that there will be no playoffs for fall sports this season. That simply added another dark page to the story, considering that it has yet to be determined whether there will be a fall sports season at all.

The CIF-SS “fall season” was pushed back to the winter and was condensed to include four sports – football, boys and girls cross country, girls volleyball, and boys and girls water polo. Because Southern California remains in the highest-level purple tier of COVID-19 risk, the CIF-SS has determined that the last possible date of competition in the fall sports would be as follows:

Boys/Girls Cross-Country -- Saturday, March 27
8-Man Football -- Saturday, April 3
11-Man Football -- Saturday, April 17
Girls Volleyball -- Saturday, March 20
Boys/Girls Water Polo -- Saturday, March 20

Given those dates, CIF officials determined that there would only be time to play a regular season, if that. Cancelling the playoffs at least increases the chances of getting some sort of regular season in.

First, however, COVID-19 numbers must decrease to the point that contact sports are allowed by state and CIF guidelines. According to current guidelines, only cross country is allowed to hold competition while in the purple tier. That competition may begin next week, but only if the state’s stay-at-home order is lifted, according to the CIF release.

In order for football, volleyball and water polo competition to take place, Southern California would have to move two levels to the lower-risk orange tier.

“These are extremely difficult times for everyone involved,” CIF-SS Commission Rob Wigod said in Tuesday’s news release. “This may be the darkest period we have experienced throughout the 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we look ahead, the holidays are now behind us, although the surge from that time frame is still being felt and is hopefully close to ending.

“Vaccines are arriving and inoculations are happening every day. Perhaps we will see case rates, hospitalizations and deaths begin to decrease and relief will come to our health care system. With those developments, the conversations with the Governor's Office, the California Department of Public Health and local health authorities regarding return to play can take on a different tone and real progress could potentially be made.”

Meanwhile, increasing frustration not only by athletes and their parents, but by some coaches, resulted in a controversial development last weekend. Two private CIF-SS member schools in Orange County – Capistrano Valley Christian and Calvary Chapel of Santa Ana – played a football game last Saturday in violation of state public health and CIF-SS guidelines. Wigod announced Wednesday that the schools would not be penalized, adding that he believes “they completely understand the relevant bylaws that are involved and I am confident that this will not happen again.”

In response to that game, the CIF State office issued a statement on Tuesday, saying that all CIF sections and member schools are bound by the state health guidelines, and that compliance is expected. This came a few days after many area communities hosted “Let Them Play” rallies, urging the beginning of the high school sports seasons.

A group of concerned parents today announced a regional "Let Them Play" rally for all of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties to be held Jan. 29 from 4-5 p.m. at Hunter Hobby Park, 1401 Iowa Ave. in Riverside. The effort, called LetThemPlayCA, has a Facebook and Instagram page.

A group of high school coaches writing on behalf of the LetThemPlayCA movement, which claims to include 42,000 student athletes and parents and more than 700 coaches, sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom today, calling on him to allow school sports competition to begin immediately.

It is unclear whether any athletes, parents or coaches from Menifee are involved in the LetThemPlayCA movement. Menifee 24/7 reached out to athletic directors Ryan Sharp of Paloma Valley High School and Scott Moore of Heritage High School for local reaction to the latest developments, but they did not respond to messages.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Daily News reported this week that a club football league called the Winner Circle Champions League began play last weekend. According to the report, the league has 34 teams and 1,500 players competing, raising concerns that members of CIF-SS member teams are or might be competing in violation of state guidelines.

In addition, a report in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune stated that Damien (La Verne) High School football coach Matt Bechtel would be “100 percent” committed to joining a club football league if there is no CIF-SS football season. The ramifications of such action are not clear.

As for the “spring sports season” – traditional winter and spring sports seasons combined – Wigod said the revised schedule developed last summer remains in place, with hopes that at least some of those sports can take place in the spring. Most of those sports are placed either in the purple or red tier, meaning it’s possible they could be played once the stay-at-home order is lifted or there is some movement in tiers.

There is also some uncertainty about youth sports leagues for younger athletes, such as Little League, Pony League, youth soccer and other sports. Residents have expressed confusion on social media about the presence of baseball teams practicing on local fields while organized leagues continue to delay their seasons because of state guidelines.

Some travel ball teams have used Menifee fields to practice. Such teams are competing out of the area and practicing locally during the pandemic. But leagues with multiple local teams, such as Menifee Valley Little League, are not active at this time.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, MVLL announced that it has further delayed the start of its season.

“We are planning on having our annual clinic on March 13, followed by player evaluations (ages 8-16) on March 20 and 21, and then starting practices the week of March 29,” the statement read. “We are hoping to be able to play games by mid-April. With these changes, we have opened registration back up and will keep it open until March 21.”

Menifee Pony Baseball announced earlier this month that its spring season would include practices only, not games. Exact dates have not been announced.

Menifee AYSO 820 announced on Facebook Wednesday that it will conduct a “skills training season” beginning in April. Saturday training sessions will be held instead of games.