Sports, alongside many other school activities, are rituals that many students look forward to participating in throughout the school year. But sports this school year will look different due to the impact of COVID-19. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has altered the schedule for sports of all seasons in the 2020-2021 school year. The new schedule was last updated on July 20th, but is still subjected to change due to the unpredictability of the spread of COVID-19. While schools in the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) have opened the academic school year with distance learning, athletes may still condition together under certain circumstances to prepare for the new seasons.
The CIF has stated guidelines that schools may follow when allowing students to begin training and conditioning. In what the CIF says to be “Phase 1” (not to be confused with the term used by state and local county agencies on the reopening of workplaces, travel, and public activities), students must follow their local county’s guidelines, remain at a distance of at least 6 feet from each other, and workout in “pods” consisting of the same 5-10 people who meet on a weekly basis. In “Phase 2,” the same guidelines apply except up to 50 people may gather for an outdoor workout.
On August 13th, the SMUHSD Athletic Directors had a town hall meeting, via Zoom, sharing updates and answering questions regarding the athletic programs in the 2020-2021 school year. The athletic directors explained that if San Mateo County is off of the state’s watch list for at least 14 days before September 14th, then sports may begin conditioning, under certain circumstances. All workouts must be outside and there is going to be a rotation schedule in which small groups of students in a team will have to take turns using the SMUHSD outdoor athletic facilities. The Mills track will not be open until around October, so Mills students will have to go to other SMUHSD campuses for conditioning when allowed to do so. Other precautions directed by the district include having temperature checks before entering any facilities, limiting participants allowed in one place at a time, having specific entrance and exit points, and requiring everyone to be socially distanced with a face covering.
A common concern brought up in the meeting, from students, was that winter and spring sports overlapped in the CIF adoptive schedule, where traditionally, students were only allowed to participate in one sport per season. The Athletic Directors announced that for this school year only, students may play two sports in one season or play club and school sports concurrently. The Athletic Directors recognized that this will be hard on the athletes, stating they must get permission from both coaches first to engage in dual activities.
Nothing is certain yet, as we do not know what the pandemic will look like in the upcoming months, but the district recognizes the importance of sports and is supportive of letting students condition when it is safe to do so.
