Back on the field: the return of Samo sports
By Grace Gyepes, Staff Writer
Sports are coming back! On Feb. 6, students enrolled in Samo sports received an email updating them on the new schedule for socially-distanced sports. Three phases went into place on Feb. 8., with every sport in each phase only being allowed to practice while adhering to social distancing guidelines.
Phase I began on Feb. 8 and continued through Feb. 22. Aquatics, cross country/track and football began holding in-person conditioning practices on Feb. 8. Aquatics are continuing their practices at the Swim Center at SMC. Meanwhile, cross country, track and football are utilizing the new and improved Cady Track and Sealy Field. Staggered practice times will be mandatory, including multiple entrance and exits gates to avoid overlap and overcrowding.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) places Samo in the purple Tier of COVID-19 restriction, meaning per every 100,000 people, more than 8 percent test positive for COVID-19, and more than seven new cases are found per day. The purple Tier allows for low-contact sports such as cross country, golf, swimming, tennis and track and field to resume normal activities. Sports at Samo in this tier are permitted to and expect to go back to competition soon.
Phase II began during the week of Feb. 15-22. Sports such as baseball, girls lacrosse and softball began during this phase. In addition, some indoor sports including volleyball and basketball started outdoor workouts during this phase. Families of students will receive emails detailing the necessary procedure taken by each coach and students in order to continue practicing.
For now, like every other sport at Samo, these Red Tier sports have only resumed for socially-distanced practices with conditioning. However, following a recent rule change by CIF and the state of California, sports in this tier may hold competitions if the county has a COVID-19 rate of less than 14 cases per 100,000 people. LA County currently has a rate of 12.3 cases per 100,000 people. Because of this, the following sports will be returning to normal practices and competitions within the coming weeks: baseball, girls’ lacrosse and softball.
Phase III begins during the weeks of Feb. 22 through Mar. 1. Spring field sports assigned to the orange tier such as boys’ lacrosse and soccer, and the remaining indoor yellow tier sports such as wrestling and cheer started scheduling practices and workouts during this phase. Again, emails were sent out to families of the athletes depicting the necessary precautions each student must take in order to attend these in-person workouts.
The new CIF rule change also applies to outdoor sports in the orange tier, which include: football, boys’ lacrosse, soccer and water polo. These sports are now also allowed to resume competition, and they expect to do so in the coming weeks. However, players on football and waterpolo are required to get tested for COVID-19 weekly in order to compete until LA County meets the requirements for the red tier in terms of COVID-19 cases. This would mean getting down to four to seven new daily cases per 100,000 people.
The last tier of sports is the yellow tier, which includes basketball, cheerleading, volleyball and wrestling. As of right now, these sports are not allowed to resume competition and are restricted to conditioning based practices. It is unclear when or if these sports will be able to have a season during this school year.
Lily Pink (’21), a member of Samo’s girls’ volleyball program, is hopeful that her sport will be able to compete soon.
“I can’t wait to start up volleyball again because I’ll get to see all of my friends and hopefully regain some normalcy to the school year,” Pink said.
