Newsom on return of youth and high school sports: ‘We want to see this happen’
If a high school football season doesn’t happen in this spring, or any number of other sports, really, it won’t be for a lack of effort.
The hurdles thus far have been too steep to clear, the colored tiers not nearly favorable enough to allow competition, showing too much angry purple. Teenagers from San Diego County at the southern border of California to Siskiyou County at the northern border and all points between have been ready since March.
That’s when the pandemic swept in and shuttered schools and shelved sports seasons. Student athletes and their campus pals and peers in dance, theater, marching band and cheer — more than 4 million teenagers across the state — have been waiting at the starting line all spring, summer, fall and well into this winter, clinging to optimism of better days and seasons ahead, because that’s what young people do.
Their frustrations and apathy have been felt at a number of local and state-wide rallies by students, parents and coaches.
Nothing alarms adults more than when young people contemplate suicide, or do it. Coaches and parents have shared with me the anguish of losing kids to suicide in recent months, be it in Sacramento, Placer or El Dorado counties.
Coaches have been ready. That’s why they coach, to help mold teams, to shape young lives, to teach life lessons, to craft memories. Parents are beyond ready. They are deeply invested in their children, their schools.
Added up, and it’s a bewildered and frustrated lot. Gov. Gavin Newsom has been the target of their angst. Newsom is the one who ordered shutdowns, in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, which in some parts of the state overwhelmed hospitals. The effort to help prevent the spread of a virus comes at the cost of shuttered businesses and sagging morale, right on into education and athletics.
Some argue that the Newsom simply does not care. He cares. He listens, but unless he suddenly green-lights sports and urges all schools to open, Newsom will remain a target.
On Wednesday, Newsom said in a news conference that he and his staff have listened to and studied the data provided by an advocacy group headed by big-name Northern California prep prep coaches — Justin Alumbaugh of De La Salle in Concord and Patrick Walsh of Serra of San Mateo — that urge the resumption of sports immediately, if not sooner.
Their group is called the Golden State HS Football Coaches Community. Alumbaugh and Walsh met with state government officials this week and will again on Thursday in an effort to get the California Department of Public Health to ease the guidelines in allowing a return to youth sports.
Said Walsh this week, speaking for kids in general, “What is more important than the health and well being of our kids? What is more important than adults creating an environment where kids can dream and strive to be the best they can be? Our kids need you. Listen to them.”
Said Newsom on Wednesday, “My team is in constant contact trying to work through these tiers. I’ll be honest with you. A lot of this is driven by football and folks wanting to get a football season in. I’m deeply sensitive to that.”
More Newsom, “I have four kids who not only want to get educated but love sports. I recognize all the benefits, physical and mental, as well as the benefits to teachers and parents that have kids engaged in physical activities in terms of our responsibility to support those children as well.”
Also this week, the National Federation of High School Sports eliminated the color-tiered Youth Sports recommendations it posted in May. Dr. Michael Koester, chair of the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, said in a statement, “If the medical profession has learned anything in the past year, it is that we have to be open to regularly assessing all available evidence and make appropriate changes in policies and procedures in places of business, schools and athletics.”
The initial NFHS guidance played into why California embraced a tiered system for allowing sports seasons. Football, for example, cannot be played under current state guidelines until a county moves out of the most restrictive purple tier and into orange, two levels down.
The majority of the state is in purple. That tier allows for outdoor sports such as cross county to compete.
The football coaching advocacy group and the “Let Them Play!” group from Facebook, is pleading that sports such as football be allowed to play in red. That is also what the governing body California Interscholastic Federation is urging with the state and county health departments, and to the governor.
Newsom says he is not tuning out the voices. He’s in the business of listening.
“We want to see this happen,” Newsom said of a youth sports return. “We want to do it safely. A lot of great data has been provided by the groups suing us. I’m very hopeful we can find a compromise here. I believe that is possible as long as these case rates continue to be moving in the direction they are moving.”
Caution around Super Bowl events
State high school football coaches pushing for a season also champion other sports. Football pushes the needle, produces the largest rosters, draws the biggest crowds, brings in the most revenue. It’s football.
The next concern could be the football game that becomes something of a national holiday. Sunday’s Super Bowl will surely draw large home gatherings, similar to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve and Day parties.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical advisor and the nation’s top infectious disease expert, has implored people to not gather for the Super Bowl because it could become a Super Spreader. He said Wednesday morning on “Good Morning America,” “You don’t want parties with people that you haven’t had much contact with, you just don’t know if they’re infected. So as difficult as that is, at least this time around, just lay low and cool it.”
He added of big gatherings, “Every time we do have something like this, there always is a spike” and that “now is not the time” to bulk gather.
This country remains divided on this. People will for certain gather. Can’t blame them. It’s been a brutal year and it’s an annual joy to toast the Super Bowl with family and friends. Others will back Fauci: Now isn’t the time.
We can all agree on this: The time is now to get kids back into sports. Enough has been lost already.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Newsom on return of youth and high school sports: ‘We want to see this happen’."