Sonoma County high schools awaiting updated guidance on prep sports

High school sports normally staged in the fall are scheduled to move from offseason workouts to an official start date Dec. 7, but officials are concerned that date is likely to come and go without any change because Sonoma County is stuck in the state’s red, most restrictive COVID-19 tier.

The combination of Sonoma County’s seeming stagnation in dealing with the coronavirus, along with a surge in cases elsewhere in California, has local athletic directors wondering when teams may be able to move beyond summer workout rules and into their official seasons.

“I would say three weeks is not long enough for us to move into the next tier of us having more activities,” North Bay League Commissioner Jan Smith Billing told a gathering of athletic directors from the league’s 13 high schools Thursday. “I would say we have a better option of us starting in the second semester.”

Officials expressed concern this week that for athletes in sports like football ― pushed from fall to winter along with cross country and volleyball ― the prohibition on activities ranging from proper tacking drills to extensive conditioning makes a swift return to competition risky.

“Even if we are in red, I can’t see our county and CIF saying, ‘Everything is fine, let’s go ahead (and start) tackling people.’ I don’t honestly see a whole lot of difference between red and purple,” Analy High athletic director Joe Ellwood said. “I certainly don’t see us in competition ... until we get out of the red.”

Despite the unknown, Smith Billing urged officials to remain hopeful. She encouraged athletic directors to continue collecting student-athlete paperwork, running concussion training and preparing to play.

“Let’s be prepared to go,” she said. “Let’s have those physicals. Be prepared on Day 1.”

Still, when Day 1 may come remains in doubt.

“What I’m trying to do is brace you for the fact that maybe the start may be delayed,” Smith Billing said.

Current county rules require masks during workouts, six feet of social distance, set pods of athletes and coaches and no indoor workouts, among other directives. But many of the state guidelines have not been updated since the first week in August, leaving local coaches and athletic directors to navigate sets of rules that don’t always mesh with the new state tier system.

It also leaves different schools and districts making individual interpretations.

“We really need to see those to be definitive about anything,“ Smith Billing said of updated guidance from the state.

On Friday, Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s Health and Human Services secretary, acknowledged the lag in state guidance and offered assurances that updates would be issued soon.

“It really is coming soon. We are finalizing it in lots of conversations with stakeholders who care deeply about this guidance, making sure we are following science,” Ghaly said. “Stay tuned. It will come out soon.”

Ghaly told reporters that he understands athletes are wanting to travel for showcases and tournaments, but discouraged that in light of a new statewide advisory against out-of-state travel.

“Having kids myself, I understand the excitement, the urge, the fact that we miss it,” he said.

That leaves local coaches and athletic directors in what Rancho Cotate High assistant principal Henri Sarlatte called a holding pattern.

Sarlatte expects updated guidance may shed more light on differentiating between sports. Athletic directors posited that whereas some high-contact indoor sports might not be allowed under updated rules, some could go on.

For the first batch of sports slated to be played this season ― volleyball, football and cross country ― that could mean mixed results.

“If that means that volleyball and cross country are the only (sports) allowed, that is what we’ll do. It’s not football-centric,” Sarlatte said.

A sport-by-sport basis is OK with Chelsea Matthew, athletic director and athletic trainer at Piner High School. Any green light would be welcome at this point, she said.

“Just to give our kids some opportunity to do something,” she said. “If cross country is all we can do, there might be more kids that come out for cross country.”

Smith Billing said league officials need to tackle whether nonleague contests are feasible with travel restrictions and counties in different stages of their fight against the virus. Some leagues in northern California have abandoned all but league contests, she said.

“We are all working so hard to get things going for our kids, but we can only do so much,” Smith Billing said. “I think we have to try to pull something off, but we also have to stay within the parameters of safety.”

In preparation for the unknown, athletic directors are still tasked with the day-to-day operations of a sports season that is expected to unfold under the cloud of a contagious virus: How to secure enough officials? How will transportation work? Will fans be allowed? What will a loss of gate revenue and concession sales do for athletic programs?

The availability of referees remains a real concern, as a growing number are opting out, Smith Billing said

“It’s already tight, even when everybody is healthy,” she said.

For many, the updated guidance from the state will provide a clearer road map for how coaches, players and teams can proceed in a decidedly uncertain time.

“We are waiting to see a definitive yes or no ― what can be done in purple and what can’t be done in purple and what can be done in red and what can’t be done in red,” Matthew said.

“I want to make sure that everybody is on the same page,” she said. “It should be a county health decision. When it’s left up to individual school districts, that is when I worry.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.