RETURN TO PLAY CIF ANNOUNCEMENT & LEAGUE UPDATE
Following the CIF announcement, SCDSL has amended the dates for league play this season. Additionally, they have put together amendments to how the league will run in order to ensure the safety of players, parents, coaches, and referees.
The SCDSL Season has now been pushed back to an October 3rd start date and will run through February. From November 23rd to January 17th, the league will go on a winter break. Games will resume play on January 23rd with a possible end date of February 21st (in time for the start of the high school soccer season). Cal South is looking into options for changing the play-dates for State Cup, so there will be no conflicts.
Teams will be limited to one game per weekend for the safety of the players. SCDSL’s complete “Return to Play” guidelines that will be distributed at a later date as they are a work in progress. However, there are a few items that SCDSL wants to address now. Firstly, there have been rumors that parents will not be allowed on the sideline, that will not be the case. Since players are minors, parents will not be completely removed from the sideline. There may be modifications as to how many spectators are allowed (i.e. no extended family). Also, all spectators will be required to wear masks and possibly social distance while on the sideline.
As we get more information from Cal South and SCDSL, we will update everyone. As always we can’t wait to get back on the fields and to some sense of normality, but we must all work together to do it safely.
Yesterday, July 20, CIF [the governing body of high school sports] made an announcement regarding high school sports.
The high school soccer season will now be played in the spring, with a start date of February 27th.
Additionally, CIF has suspended restrictions on outside competition for this academic year.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR CLUB SOCCER?
Now that high school football moved to the winter (with a start date of December 14th), there is an opportunity for the club season to be pushed back as well. This gives us more time to move through the mandated Phases and properly prepare for the league season. Additionally, with the outside competition rule being suspended, this means that players will be allowed to participate in high school soccer and club soccer simultaneously if there were a conflict.
Our club, along with Cal South, and all the league’s focus is to get the kids back on the field safely to play the game they love.