The coronavirus pandemic led California to increase all fall sports in high school on Monday, in favor of a new calendar that will compact all games, such as soccer, in a few months of winter and spring.
The California Interscholastic Federation, which regulates high school sports, will not host any games in any sport until at least December, authorities said.
The new calendar would mean soccer, a staple of fall on Friday nights in America’s largest state, would be played in the spring with the last game played no later than April 17, 2021, he announced. the CIF.
CIF South Section Commissioner Rob Wigod admitted that the timetable is not ideal. But because many California schools have said they will start the fall semester with only online instruction, this was the only option below canceling full seasons.
“The alternative would be to simply cancel one season or entire seasons. In other words, since the fall season could not come in the traditional window from August to November and December, today we would have announced the cancellation of the fall season.” Wigod told reporters on Monday.
“I don’t think anyone has preferred that option.”
California had been a model for controlling the coronavirus pandemic before a big jump in cases in recent weeks.
The World Health Organization has set a target of 5 percent for positive tests and Californians are now reaching a rate of 7.26 percent in the past seven days, according to data from the Johns University School of Medicine. Hopkins.
Wigod said that these plans remain the best scenarios and that if the pandemic does not improve, sports could still be canceled.
By December, Wigod said he hopes “local and state authorities have allowed students to return to campus.”
Earlier this month, a host of fall sports, including soccer, in New Mexico and Washington DC moved to spring.
Bruce Howard, a spokesman for the National Federation of State High School Associations, said he believes these will be the first sanctioned prep soccer games to be played in this new time frame.
“As far as I know, it has always been played in the fall throughout history,” he said.
A leading educator in Texas said this month that grid action may not be possible this fall, even in Lone Star football-crazed state.
Texas sports managers could make an announcement about soccer before the weekend.
