Photo Credit: Bob Dahlberg
Editors Note: Click here for an earlier update on the upcoming sports season.
As San Mateo County reached the Orange tier on the state’s reopening metric last Tuesday, questions still remain about the upcoming sports season. Athletic director Paul Snow said, “We are planning for [this season], but we’re at the mercy of state and county restrictions. If nothing changes from where we are right now, sports will not be happening in December because we’re limited to cohorts of 16 and we must maintain social distance and not use shared equipment. It’s just a big waiting game now until we hear something from the governor or local health officials.”
“If nothing changes from where we are right now, sports will not be happening in December.”
Season 1 sports, many of which have seasons that were supposed to start in December, can only happen when the state lifts their current restrictions on youth sports. If the pandemic gets worse, or the state refuses to ease restrictions, it is unlikely that Season 1 will get rescheduled. According to Snow, “If Season 1 can’t happen, it’s more likely to be cancelled than rescheduled later. Season 2 has the priority because CIF really doesn’t want to see spring sports cancelled 2 years in a row.”
Many sports are currently practicing in cohorts of 15 athletes right now, when asked how it was going Snow said, “Scheduling is a challenge, just finding a safe spot for all of those teams who want to participate in conditioning. We also have a shortage of coaches because a coach can only take a group of 15 now and normally the coach to athlete ratio is much higher than that.”
