‘We’re not going to wait.’ Merced County schools may leave CIF to form own sports leagues
Merced County high schools have come up a with a plan to possibly leave the California Interstate Federation this spring and form their own sports leagues, after the COVID-19 pandemic put local sports on hold.
The decision by Merced County school officials to consider forming their own athletics leagues may hinge on whether the CIF decides to cancel any sports — like football and volleyball — in the next few weeks.
“Merced County superintendents want our students to play what they can when they can,” said Alan Peterson, Merced Union High School District superintendent. “We are giving CIF time to react to our proposal, we will make an official decision on Feb. 1.”
The Sac-Joaquin Section has already canceled postseason for Season 1 sports like football, volleyball and water polo.
The CIF’s plan was for those sports to start on Jan. 25. But according to the state’s COVID-19 guidelines, all three of those sports can’t start until the county is in the orange (moderate spread) tier of California’s color-coded “Blueprint for a Safer Economy.”
Merced County is currently subject to the purple tier — the state’s most restrictive designation for reopening under its COVID-19 plan, denoting “widespread risk” of viral transmission.
The fear among local athletic directors, coaches and administrators is the CIF could ultimately cancel sports in Season 1.
“Our philosophy is to do whatever we can for our students when it is safe to do it,” Peterson said. “The plan is we play what we can play, when we can play it. We’re not going to wait for the CIF and the rest of the state. We have to move forward.”
The plan to launch local sports
The plan — spearheaded by Atwater athletic director Scott Wine and Livingston athletic director Scott Winton — could kick off by spring, depending on what the CIF decides.
All 14 Merced County high schools would be divided into athletic leagues.
Those schools include Merced, Golden Valley, El Capitan, Atwater, Buhach Colony, Livingston, Hilmar, Delhi, Los Banos, Pacheco, Stone Ridge Christian, Dos Palos, Le Grand and Gustine. Mariposa County would also be included.
The schools would most likely be divided by enrollment and other factors to ensure competitiveness in each sport.
“We want to get everyone to play,” Wine said. “The hard part is getting everyone to agree which way is best.”
The state’s COVID-19 travel restrictions for sports teams prevented local schools from competing against those in other counties, unless the two competing schools share a physical county border.
“No Merced County school is in a league where it’s just a Merced County league,” Winton said. “The TVL and WAC schools are spread across three and four counties. There’s a possibility of not being able to play league games. Plan B is a county-only league.”
A Merced County league would help with scheduling and travel.
“With the amount of planning that goes into scheduling a game, transportation, officials, game management personnel, it becomes challenging to not know if you can or cannot leave the county for a game. By staying in county we eliminate that unknown,” Winton said.
Shorter Seasons
The Merced County sports plan also divides the rest of the school year into four shorter seasons.
The CIF’s plan is for two longer seasons with large overlaps between sports, which doesn’t allow the opportunity for athletes to play more than one sport.
The Merced County plan is for Season 1 to consist of only sports that can get started while the county is in purple tier. Girls golf, cross county, girls tennis and swimming are all considered purple tier sports and are included in Season 1.
“Purple sports can start when the stay-at-home order is lifted,” Wine said. “There’s no going around the department of health or the COVID limitations. That’s never been part of the plan. Our goal is to play sports when it’s safe to play.”
Peterson says the plan has been approved by the Merced County Department of Health. The county schools would still be following the California State Department Public of Health’s guide for which sports are permitted to be played while the county is subject to a particular tier.
Season 2 sports would start on March 15 and would include baseball, softball, and boys and girls volleyball. Baseball and softball are permitted to start when the county reaches the red tier — the state’s second most restrictive COVID-19 designation. Volleyball can start when the county is in the orange tier — the state’s third most restrictive tier.
Football could also start in Season 2 if Merced County is in the orange tier.
“Sports like golf, cross country, tennis and swimming will happen in Merced County this year,” Peterson said. “The rest of the state can’t say that. We’re projected to be back in red in mid-March. If those projections are off and it doesn’t happen until April, then sports like baseball and softball will happen in April. Is is possible that some sports won’t get off the ground? Yes, sure that’s possible.”
“We’ll play what we can play,” he added.
Season 3 would start on April 12 and would consist of track, boys tennis and boys golf. The rest of the sports like basketball and soccer would be part of Season 4.
“We want to give our kids the opportunity to participate in all sports,” Wine said. “We don’t want to see any sports canceled. We want to give our kids as many opportunities as possible.”
Consequences of leaving CIF?
The biggest negative of leaving the CIF is that Merced County schools wouldn’t be allowed to participate in the section playoffs and postseason events.
“To me, the only negative is missing out on playoffs,” said Paul Hogue, Merced High athletic director.
The Merced County schools would basically be trading off a chance to offer all sports and a better chance of offering a regular season for the opportunity to participate in the playoffs.
Wine says the county schools’ first choice would be to remain with the section.
“That’s why we want to wait to see if the CIF’s plan evolves, what adjustments they make, what movement the section makes,” Wine said.
Peterson says he expects more counties to make similar decisions.
“It’s going to be up to counties to get it done if they are going to play sports this year,” Peterson said. “It took us a full month to be prepared to move forward with this. We have like-minded leadership in this county which makes it easier.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 5:06 PM.
