CIF official: There will be playoffs in spring team sports

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Southland high school athletes and coaches got some good news today when the CIF Southern Section office announced that playoffs will take place in most Season 2 team sports.

The Season 2 designation was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic as officials tried to salvage some sort of schedule for teams this school year. Basically, it consists of the traditional winter and spring sports. Today’s announcement included plans for playoffs in the following team sports:

Baseball
Boys/Girls Basketball
Boys/Girls Lacrosse
Boys/Girls Soccer
Softball
Boys/Girls Team Tennis
Boys Volleyball
Boys/Girls Dual Meet Wrestling

In making the announcement, CIF-SS Commissioner Rob Wigod identified four Season 2 individual sports that are under consideration for postseason competition. He said his office is “working on securing approvals from various county health departments to ensure that we can conduct championship events involving student-athletes from all eight counties within the Southern Section footprint.” Those sports are:

Boys/Girls Golf
Boys/Girls Swimming/Diving
Boys/Girls Individual Tennis
Boys/Girls Track and Field

Details about playoff qualification and dates will be forthcoming.

“We kept in mind that our spring sports had suffered tremendously with the shutdown of schools and athletic programs in March 2020,” Wigod said. “One of our most important goals was to provide full regular seasons and Section championships for those who had lost those opportunities last year.”

Playing a traditional winter sports schedule a year ago, the Paloma Valley High School girls basketball team almost got an entire playoff season in. Unfortunately, the day before the Wildcats were scheduled to play for the CIF state championship in Sacramento March 13, the CIF State office joined other sports organizations in cancelling competition.

Wildcats coach Matt Dale, named CIF State Coach of the Year after leading last year’s team to a 34-3 record, said the disappointing end to last season hasn’t been a topic of discussion in the weeks since the team held tryouts March 19 and begin practice shortly thereafter. In short, there hasn’t been time to do anything other than rush to prepare for an abbreviated season. Dale said this afternoon he hasn’t met with the team since today’s 9 a.m. announcement; the team practices at 6:30 a.m.

“Stuff that usually takes three months to teach, we had a week for,” said Dale, who welcomed back just five players from last year’s team. “At tryouts, we only had like 15 girls (for varsity and JV teams). Some families were hesitant at first to let their girl return. I’m happy we’re able to provide something cool for the girls to do after all this time, but we want to make sure it’s a safe and positive experience.”

The Wildcats are 1-1 heading into Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. home game against ML King. Attendees are limited to two adults per athlete, seated with social distancing.

Dale’s team normally plays 30 or more games per season. The Wildcats’ schedule this spring calls for 12 games, plus playoffs.

The other Paloma Valley winter sport that made headlines far into the postseason a year ago was the wrestling program. Finishing the season just before the pandemic was declared, the Wildcats sent eight girls and two boys to the state meet in the program’s finest season ever.

Unfortunately, Wigod announced today that wrestling postseason competition will be limited to dual meet events. There will be no postseason for individual wrestling competition because it is still classified as a high-contact indoor sport.

“I saw it coming, so it wasn’t jaw dropping,” said Wildcats head wrestling coach Luis Robles. “But wrestling is mostly an individual sport, and canceling the individual postseason is almost like canceling the season for many kids.

“At Paloma, historically, the most important time of the season is our individual postseason, and now it’s gone. I feel really bad for kids with small teams, where a dual meet is either hard to make happen or the schools are just choosing not to compete. Luckily, we have had enough kids come back out to wrestling this year, that we should put out a competitive team in duals. Duals thrive on participation numbers, and right now across the area from all the coaches I talk to, participation numbers are at an all-time low.

“I don’t blame CIF. They did the best they can with what they are working with. Girls haven’t typically had dual meet championships, and CIF is making it happen this year for them, so that’s good on their part.”

Playoff seasons will also be a topic of discussion at Heritage High, where the baseball team is taking advantage of the opportunity for virtually a full season a year after having virtually no season. The Patriots are 5-3 overall and 3-0 in league play. In addition, the softball team is 5-1.