Time is running out on high school football in Santa Clara County.
Any chance that Santa Clara County high school football teams would start practice Dec. 14, as hoped, ended Saturday with the announcement of a temporary ban on contact sports in the county.
But even before the ban, which will be in effect for a minimum of three weeks, the odds of a mid-December start with games in early January, seemed long in the face of rising coronavirus case numbers.
Anticipating updated guidelines from state health officials this month, high school sports administrators instead received more delays.
“We’re on an airplane circling the runway,” Central Coast Section Commissioner Dave Grissom said two weeks ago. “When they can give us clearance to land, they will. It’s the same plan we’ve had since July.”
Longtime Valley Christian football coach Mike Machado said Saturday that nobody expected practices to start on Dec. 14, but he is hopeful that a revised schedule will allow for a truncated season of league games in late winter and early spring.
“I want my seniors to have a season,” Machado said. “As far as I can tell, the science tells you that shutting down places isn’t what’s stopping people from getting coronavirus. The damage it’s doing to the kids in terms of the educational system that we’re all stuck with right now and social inaction, we have to get these kids out and involved.
“Everybody knows what needs to happen to be as safe as possible, the masks, the distancing and that stuff. We worked out before last week, we worked out for three weeks two hours a day Monday through Thursday, and we never had a case.
“From my standpoint, it’s doable.”
Santa Clara County’s revised and mandatory directives will start Monday, Nov. 30 at 12:01 a.m. and will stretch until Dec. 21 at 5 a.m., unless they are extended.
The order for pro, college and youth sports states:
“All recreational activities that involve physical contact or close proximity to persons outside one’s household, including all contact sports, will be temporarily prohibited. People can continue to engage in outdoor athletics and recreation where social distancing can be maintained at all times.”
This breaking news story will be updated as more information comes in.
