CIF postpones high school sports season, issues modified schedule for 2020-2021
The California Interscholastic Federation, commonly known as CIF, has postponed the start of the high school sports season and released a new calendar due to the ongoing pandemic.
If it is safe for high school sports to be played, CIF will implement a revised and shortened schedule for sports to resume as early as December.
This new calendar shows that seasons have been changed and shortened to fit in all sports. The three-season schedule has been condensed to a two-season format, Fall and Spring.
Click HERE for the complete breakdown of the CIF-SS schedule as it pertains to each high school sport with specific dates.
Athletic directors around the valley seemed genuinely excited and pleased with the plan in place by CIF.
"It's an exciting time, we're excited about it. We want to get athletes back on the field, we want to get kids back on our campuses and the sooner we can do that uh we'll figure out a way to make this schedule work and give the kids the best experience they can have," said Chris Calderwood, Rancho Mirage high school athletic director.
"I commend CIF in doing the best they could to accommodate all three seasons of sport. Our kids deserve the opportunity to play, said Juan Ramon Ruiz," La Quinta high school athletic director.
"There's going to be a lot of roadblocks and challenges but by having a schedule right now it gives us the opportunity to work at those challenges and roadblocks and to make the best possible season for our athletes when it comes down to it," said Mike Ventura, Palm Springs high school athletic director.
Included in the revised plan is high school football. The season was slated to start in August but is now scheduled to start on Friday, Jan. 8 with practices allowed to begin on Monday, Dec. 14.
"It is what it is," said Palm Desert head football coach Shane McComb. "We will prepare the same and be ready to continue (our) dominance."
Xavier Prep head football coach and assistant athletic director James Dockery said he knew this decision was coming but hoped it didn't take so long to happen.
"I knew this was the case for a while now. It kept the players stressed out wondering when they would play so I would’ve like to have had an announcement a lot sooner. However there’s so many moving parts to creating this plan and overall I thought CIF did a great job in setting this up," said Dockery.
Given the current situation in the state in regards to coronavirus, the decision to have a modified sports calendar is not surprising, especially since all valley schools will have distance learning.
CIF Southern Section Commissioner Rob Wigod held a news conference discussing how this will affect our region.
"It will require vision, creativity, flexibility, teamwork and an unwavering commitment from all involved to get this job done. This has been a call to leadership and I believe we've answered that call today," Wigod said.
"We all have a tremendous amount of work to do in the time ahead to deliver what our student-athletes, coaches, parents and school communities want us to deliver. I truly believe we can do it."
According to the CIF website, the mission statement is as follows:
The CIF governs interscholastic athletics, promoting equity, quality, character and academic development.
- Equity – Equal opportunity without regard to race, gender, and ethnicity within all aspects of the athletic program for students, personnel, schools and governance.
- Quality – Training, education and commitment of coaches, officials, administrators and parents to improve the quality of athletic programs.
- Character – Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and good citizenship.
- Academic Development – Commitment to encourage academic growth is a high priority.
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