SALT LAKE CITY – In California, high school football is lagging because of the new coronavirus pandemic.
The state governing board for high school athletics, the California Interscholastic Federation, announced Monday that the fall sports season, including soccer competition, will be delayed, and the sport will begin in December 2020 or January 2021, depending on the 10 sections of the CIF.
The CIF noted that the soccer section playoffs will end on April 10 and the regional / state championships on April 17.
California joins New Mexico to delay its fall athletic competition in high school. The Utah High School Activities Association is planning for sports to return in the fall: The first high school soccer weekend is slated for August 14, with a game, Davis at Herriman, opening the season the night before.
California is a rich recruiting ground for programs across the country, and with the delay in soccer preparation in the state, it will have an impact on recruitment.
Student athletes who planned to graduate from high school early and sign a National Letter of Intent during the NCAA early signing period in December and head to college as an early enrollee would now face the decision to stick with that plan and lose their final high school. season or postpone when they join their college program. The traditional National Signature Day is in February.
247 Sports reported that one of the nation’s top recruits in the class of 2021, five-star defensive lineman Korey Foreman of Corona (California) Centennial High, has already responded to the news. “If you make me choose between my last year or go to college … please believe that I am heading to my first camp … no questions asked,” Foreman wrote on Twitter.
if they make me choose between my last year or go to college … please believe I’m headed to my first camp … no questions asked
– Korey Foreman (@ koreyforeman54) July 20, 2020
Universities in Utah are no stranger to bringing talent from California. The University of Utah had five people signed up to California high school in its 2020 soccer recruiting class, while BYU had four and Utah State two.
The highest profile of those was the signer of Utes Clark Phillips III, a five-star cornerback from La Habra High in California, rated the tallest recruit who has ever signed with Utah. He graduated from high school early and joined the US program as an early enrollee, going through winter conditioning and participating in spring practice before COVID-19 ended camp in mid-March. .
“Obviously, he has a lot to learn: he should still be in high school,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham told the Deseret News of Phillips in March. “But we believe he has a very bright future.”
