CIF Southern Section cancels fall sports championships due to coronavirus

Corona del Mar quarterback Ethan Garbers celebrates on Nov. 29, 2019.

By Andrew TurnerStaff Writer

Jan. 19, 2021 11:42 AM PT

The CIF Southern Section announced Tuesday morning that it has canceled its fall high school sports championships because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result, there will be no section playoffs for football, girls’ volleyball, water polo and cross-country.

A statement issued by the section pointed to a lack of tier progression with respect to the transmission of the virus in the Southern California region as a primary reason for the decision.

Per the state’s youth sports guidelines, cross-country is the only fall sport in the section that can have competitions in the purple tier, and that is contingent on the stay-at-home order being lifted.

The seven counties that comprise nearly the entirety of the section’s membership — Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Ventura — are in that most-restrictive tier.

The earliest that competition could be held between two teams under current guidance from the California Department of Public Health is Jan. 25.

A series of “Let Them Play” rallies were seen in Orange County and across the state on Friday as demonstrators pushed for the resumption of high school sports.

In early December, the CIF State office opted to cancel all regional and state championships for fall sports.

By removing the playoffs from the fall sports calendar, the window has been expanded for section schools to potentially schedule and play more regular season and league games during what would have been the postseason dates.

“I just don’t believe that today’s the day to tell our student-athletes that we’re done fighting for them, that we’re going to give up,” CIF Commissioner Rob Wigod said of keeping regular season games on the table. “As long as there’s time remaining, then we need to keep that in mind and hopefully try to keep them focused and staying positive towards what’s in front of them.”

The fall sports of football, girls’ volleyball and water polo were all placed in the orange tier for “moderate transmission,” which would necessitate counties to progress from purple to red, and then into the orange tier, for those sports to be allowed.

Orange County has had 110 coronavirus deaths over the last two days, per data provided by the Orange County Health Care Agency on Tuesday.

There has been 2,477 fatalities countywide because of the virus. An additional 3,995 cases were reported to take the cumulative case count to 214,808.

Reports surfaced of a football game played between Orange County private schools in Calvary Chapel and Capistrano Valley Christian last week.

Wigod said that he has spoken to the administration of four high schools alleged to have held games, adding that the section is continuing the “process of getting all of the information that we need.”

The CIF State office distributed a letter to its member schools Tuesday entitled, “Mandatory Compliance with CIF Bylaws and CDPH Guidance.” The communication warned that any school that did not comply could be subject to penalization.

“Any school determined to have participated in or to be conducting interscholastic athletics events in violation of the State’s orders or CIF rules may be subject to CIF Article 22 sanctions including, but not limited to, fines, suspension or dismissal from membership,” the statement said.

Calvary Chapel football coach Pat McInally did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the game that was reported to have been played on Saturday.

Huntington Beach football coach Brett Brown said that his wife, Brianna, is a nurse at UC Irvine Medical Center.

“Don’t get me wrong, I definitely understand that things are bad right now,” Brown said. “My wife’s actually a nurse, and she’s on the front lines taking care of them, but I feel the effects [on] these kids mentally are far worse than the effects of COVID, on teenagers at least.”

Brown added that the loss of the playoffs did not change much from his perspective, with April 17 remaining the final date that football games could be played. That leaves about three months for some games to be played if the county were to progress to the orange tier.

“For the sake of the seniors, I would be happy with one game,” Brown said, hopeful that his players would get to suit up in uniform at least once this season. “The majority of high school athletes don’t go on to play their sport after high school anyways, so if they can have one more opportunity, then I’m all for it.”

The final date of competition for water polo and girls’ volleyball as provided by the section is March 20. The end date for the cross-country season is March 27, and it is April 3 for eight-man football.

That the season was not canceled outright was also a net positive for Costa Mesa cross-country coach Steve Moreno.

“My heart goes out to these athletes and what they’re going through,” Moreno said. “Just trying to remain as positive as possible and work within the means that are given to us to be able to sustain some sort of a season, especially for fall sports.

“Hopefully by spring, things will be much better, and we’ll be able to do more.”

Support our sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.

For more sports stories, visit latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/sports or follow us on Twitter @DailyPilotSport.

CIF Southern Section cancels fall sports championships due to coronavirus

More on this Subject