‘We must have a seat at the table’: Fresno-area high school football coaches want answers
A group of high school football coaches gathered Wednesday afternoon at Bullard High School to voice their reason why a season should be played.
The “Coalition of San Joaquin Valley Coaches” is pushing for a season because coaches say they see a lack of coordination between school districts, the California Interscholastic Federation, county health agencies and state officials as to when sports can resume.
The coaches want to sit down with officials to go over what can be done to have a season for the athletes.
The coaches laid out four different scenarios to have a football season:
▪ Scenario 1: Start practice Feb. 8, with Week 1 starting Feb. 26 and regular season ending March 26 before playoffs are run April 16-30.
▪ Scenario 2: Start practice Feb. 22, with Week 1 being played March 12 lasting until April 16. The postseason will be played April 30-May 7.
▪ Scenario 3: Practice would begin March 15, with Week 1 taking place April 2. The regular season would conclude April 30, with playoffs going May 7 and 14.
▪ Scenario 4: Practice would begin April 12. Week 1 would begin April 30 and the regular season concludes May 28. Playoffs would be played June 4 and 11.
“We must have a seat at the table,” Hoover coach Rus Pickett said. “We have boots on the ground working with our student-athletes, parents and community. We are publicly asking our districts, county health, departments and state officials to meet and plan with us and to take our advice seriously. We are not claiming to be doctors by any means. When we talk about talks, I’m not talking about a scheduled meeting. Let’s have talk after talk and figure this thing out.”
High school football hasn’t been played in the Central Section since the 2019 season.
It has been 10 months since any high school sports were played in California. Sports were halted in March because of COVID-19.
Fall and winter sports were pushed to potentially early 2021, but that start time is up in the air as a nearly statewide shutdown continues because of rising COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Much of California, including the Central Section, is in the state most-restrictive COVID-19 purple tier in its blueprint to regulate acceptable business and social conduct. Football is listed in the orange (moderate risk) tier, two steps below purple.
The CIF, which has based much of its decision from guidelines provided by the California Department of Public Health, has proposed to resume sports Jan. 25.
Under current guidelines, sports such as cross country, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field are allowed to begin in counties that are in the purple tier.
For other sports to resume, the spread of the coronavirus would have to drop so counties could move to lower tiers.
Pickett said he wants some answers.
“We’re not sitting at the same table. That is just being honest,” he said. “We don’t know what is happening behind closed doors. Things get rolled out we need to adhere by them. There hasn’t been a lot of meetings, if any, in regards to having those talks of where you guys are at and how do we move from place to place.”
Bullard High coach Don Arax just wants “all kids” in every sport to get “an opportunity to play their senior year.”
“The CIF works for us,” he said. “We respect what they do. It’s a great organization, but they’re driving the schedule. By the CIF driving the schedule, it doesn’t consider what is happening to the kids. Right now, the CIF ideal is that because the spring sports were canceled the previous year, and sports like football played last year, then our priorities is with the spring sports. We simply don’t understand that.
“Football is the one sport that is really in peril. This is about our kids.”
This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 7:28 PM.
