High school football's Sonoma County return sparks joy, concern

Feb. 26—After the surprise announcement a week ago that most high school sports will indeed be played this year, the collective elation of local officials, athletic directors and coaches shifted suddenly to a short but complicated question: How?

With students still learning from home, campuses largely shut, and just slightly more than three months left in the school year, leaders are now wrestling with myriad safety protocols — clearing athletes, crafting schedules and agreeing on standard operating procedures between teams and athletes, especially around football.

So unexpected was the Feb. 19 announcement from state public health officials allowing the resumption of football that coaches and athletic directors in the North Bay League agreed to hold off on the start of full contact practice until at least Monday. The rules allowed pads and contact starting Friday.

"The (athletic directors) all agreed that that was just way too fast and they needed some time to even get kids cleared to participate, so they agreed to start on March 1," said Jan Smith Billing, the commissioner of the 13-school North Bay League. "So we are all in the same boat; everybody is together."

'It's an ethical consideration'

Complicating things was the emergence this winter of participation in club football, something coaches and athletic directors said gives some athletes an unfair and dangerous advantage.

"This created a lot of consternation," Smith Billing told league principals at a meeting Thursday.

On Tuesday, league athletic directors addressed how to craft schedules that consider how athletes from programs such as those in Santa Rosa City Schools, who for months were prohibited from working out or using school facilities, would compete against schools that had allowed more extensive workouts and training sessions.

"That was not a disciplinary hearing," Smith Billing said. "To me, personally, it's an ethical consideration. It's not a league thing, it's just something we kind of have to talk about. This was a unique year and this happened."

Cardinal Newman football coach Paul Cronin attended the athletic directors meeting Tuesday to answer questions about his program's involvement in club football. The club team, he told officials, was not the Cardinals squad going by a different name.

"Twenty teams were represented in Sonoma County," he said. "There was going to be no season and they were pressured not only by the kids but the parents, 'Hey, what are we going to do to give these guys opportunities?'"

"I don't want club football," he said. "I have never coached club football in my life. Did I advise that club? Yes. I would say they had four practices in gear."

St. Vincent de Paul High School, another North Bay League team, rented school facilities to a different club team and sold that squad what Principal Pat Daly called surplus St. Vincent gear. Daly also took the role of treasurer of the California Association of Private Sports which oversaw the league, he told athletic directors Tuesday.

But he maintained that the team took all comers and was not a school team in disguise.

"No one was going to get turned away," he said. "If it was just St. Vincent's I absolutely would not have done it. I wouldn't have agreed to it."

Coaches at Petaluma High and Casa Grande High, which both compete in the Vine Valley Athletic League, also reported having players leave their squads to work out and compete with a club team.

But that was enough for Santa Rosa City Schools officials to opt out of competing against either St. Vincent or Cardinal Newman this season. The district's football teams will play against each other and skip out-of-district opponents.

The district's lead athletic director Dean Haskins called it an equity issue and said to pit Santa Rosa City Schools teams against squads that have been working out, weight training and building offensive and defensive schemes would risk injuries, putting "our kids in a health and safety risk."

"We, as a district, would really like to play within our district at this time, that way we can control our starting point," he said.

Cronin agreed.

"Santa Rosa City Schools should stay together completely because they have had the toughest situation," he said.

That means the NBL football schedule will be broken into three groups: Cardinal Newman, Windsor and Rancho Cotate; Analy, El Molino, Healdsburg, Ukiah and St. Vincent; and Santa Rosa, Maria Carrillo, Montgomery and Piner. Elsie Allen, which has struggled to field a varsity team, will compete in junior varsity competitions.

Teams will generally have four games and a bye, which they can fill with another game or use as an extra practice week. The season, per CIF rules, must conclude by April 17.

'People love their kids and want to be there'

The return of football ignited another layer of discussion among officials this week, that of spectators in stands.

North Bay League principals debated both the merits of allowing or prohibiting spectators at any prep sports event and dug into the state guidance which calls for limiting observers to "immediate household members, and for the strict purpose of age appropriate supervision."

Officials searched for common rules, noting that the league includes two counties, two county health departments, and multiple school districts.

"I feel that we all need to do the same thing and be on the same page," Ukiah High School principal Gordon Oslund said. "I predict this will be a very contentious issue because people love their kids and want to be there."

"I need to have an explanation that makes sense to parents," he said.

On Thursday the group tentatively agreed to proceed with allowing immediate family members to attend, so long as facial coverings and social distancing is adhered to.

"For me, the issue comes down to providing one another with accurate information and a gate list and letting our people know that if you are not on the list, don't go to that facility, don't go to that venue," Oslund said.

Santa Rosa City Schools athletic directors were slated to meet Friday to talk about the new guidance, including the district's interpretation of the rules on spectators.

Also on Friday Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools Steve Herrington advised a group of educators in a wide-ranging webinar that the state rules prevent family members who don't have an official role from being on site.

"I know as a parent that I would go to observe practice and watch the kids play, but now there restrictions on that," he said. "Being there and watching the game, or if I'm not a coach or a walk-on coach as a parent, I should't be there. That would jeopardize your standing."

In Humboldt County Thursday, the county health officer declared that parents and supporters would not be allowed in the stands at high school sporting events, but supervision by parents, guardians or other adults will be permitted at youth sports, according to the Eureka Times-Standard.

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

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