By DARREN SABEDRA | dsabedra@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: July 21, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: July 21, 2020 at 10:51 a.m.
Ron Nocetti said the biggest challenge has been the seemingly endless change.
It’s been that way for the California Interscholastic Federation’s executive director since the coronavirus wiped out the state basketball championships in mid-March.
The latest change was a doozy as the CIF — the state’s governing body for high school athletics — announced Monday that it was postponing fall sports until winter and combining winter and spring sports in hopes of finally finding daylight from the coronavirus’ lingering darkness.
“All of us have spent the entire summer looking at these reports and it changes not just daily but sometimes multiple times a day,” Nocetti said about the virus. “I don’t think any of us have experienced anything like this, with the constant changes. That’s been the most challenging part.”
Shortly after his office’s announcement Monday, Nocetti spent a few minutes with this news organization to discuss what went into the decision that sparked plenty of reaction and the steps CIF plans to take in the months leading up to the start of the new sports calendar.
Here is what he said:
What led to the decision to push fall sports to 2021?
As we’ve said all along, we have been following the guidance by the governor’s office, the California Department of Public Health, the California Department of Public Education, and we’re continuing to follow that. So last week when the governor announced that schools on the watch list would be starting the year in distance learning, the numbers I am hearing that could represent 80 percent of our population. The 10 section commissioners, I really have to thank them for their leadership. Brian Seymour, our associate executive director, has led that group since June in working on the sports calendar. What started out with multiple plans came down to the one that everyone thought gave as many opportunities to as many students as possible to have close to a full season.
With the blending of winter and spring seasons together, how much of a concern was it that multi-sport athletes will be limited to one sport?
The students are the biggest concern in everything we do. We looked at models that would’ve allowed three seasons. But even those models would’ve had so much overlap on both ends of it that it could’ve also made it hard to play a fall sport and a winter sport and a winter sport and spring sport — maybe have limited them even more. This allows for our facilities to operate with less overlap and, while we do know that there are going to have to be some choices made, I think this is our best plan moving forward at this time.
What data will CIF monitor to decide whether it’s safe to play in January?
That comes from the California Department of Public Health. That is who we follow and who we will continue to follow.
If the California Department of Public Health says it’s OK for kids to go back to school, will that be an indicator that kids can play sports?
The guidance that they’ll give moving forward will hopefully include sports. In our conversations with the California Department of Public Health, my conversations with them, their position is there should be no sports taking place in the state of California at this time. As you know, not everyone is following that guidance. We’re doing our part on behalf of the state of California to make sure we do everything we can so that we can return and ideally everyone will get on the same page moving forward with what’s best for the entire state.
How important was it to have a calendar that included one week of regional/state football?
Our goal was to provide as much of a full season as possible — that they had an opportunity to play some preseason games, to play a league schedule, to play their section championships. We didn’t want to do anything that would limit the section championships from being played in their entirety if it all possible. I think that’s why you saw the limit to the state events to just one week. Some of our sports go straight to state events, like cross country, wrestling, track and field and swimming and diving. The others will be regional-based events. We cut it to one week. But we’re again trying to do everything we can to provide a full experience.
Will there be state basketball in Sacramento?
I think right now with state basketball, we have one week to do regional events. We can see a lot of events being done at home sites. With the current calendar and only having a week to play, they are going to be regionally focused events. The four sports that go automatically to state — there is no regional play — those sports will still go automatically to state. That doesn’t change because we currently do a one-week event for those sports.
Was it important for CIF to buy more time rather than go with September or October revised start?
The priority was to make sure that we were being good partners of our schools and school districts in allowing them to, first and foremost, put plans together on educating our students. This gives them the ability to put their focus on that, knowing that co-curricular, extra-curricular activities — not just athletics but music, drama, the arts — they are all important. I think that’s also why if you look at the release we’ve added a lot of flexibility. Let’s see if we find out in September and October that some things can start to take place. Whether it’s training and conditioning or sports themselves, we gave our sections the ability to extend their summer periods. That would obviously be up to each school site principal on whether they want to do that. But they could really treat the months leading up to December and January as their summertime. I think what that does is it gives our students the opportunity to do like they normally do in the summer and that’s to prepare properly for their seasons. If we are allowed to start that and the guidance does change, it’s a huge credit to our commissioners for adding that flexibility in giving our schools that choice.
Was there any indication that sections might go their own way?
There was some discussion about possibilities if they could do that. Our only guidance was whatever we are doing as an organization we follow the guidance of the California Department of Public Health. (The Northern Section announced Monday that its calendar would not match that of the CIF).
Could private schools go their own way?
I think we have all seen stories about that possibility. I think there was also a lot of speculation that fall sports would be canceled instead of moved. I think now that everyone sees that the plan is to try and conduct two seasons of sport with all sports having an opportunity, I think we have recently seen some people state that they would play within that season. Our only encouragement to private schools if they want to look at something different is that they really need to be in close contact with their section office and make sure as CIF member schools that they are doing everything within their section rules.
What will football in March and April look like?
The weather may be different, the feeling may be different, but ultimately having students out there on the field competing in not just football but all of our sports is something that we’re all looking forward to and something we’re all going to be very excited to see return.
Are you relieved now that the announcement is out?
I wouldn’t use the word relieved. I am excited for the possibility, moving forward. Now is where the work continues with how to plan for everything that we’ve laid out. I’ve been so appreciative of all the comments that I’ve seen on social media from coaches and athletic administrators and principals and superintendents throughout the state of California.
What happens between now and January?
We’ll be in constant communication with the commissioners and also with the appropriate state agencies to continue to monitor numbers and see when schools can possibly return and look forward to the day when guidance comes out that not only can schools return but sports can return, ideally with conditioning possibly and then contests.
Are you hopeful that this is the final postponement?
We’re all hopeful for that. But as we’ve seen, no one can predict what’s going to happen here.