Central Coast Sections finals end a crazy season

The last six months have been a whirlwind and blur. Hats off to all the coaches and administrators who worked tirelessly to get schedules in place and juggled facility usage, all the while maintaining testing and COVID protocol for all the athletes.

The student-athletes, too, deserve to take a bow. For all those athletes who stuck with the limited conditioning programs that began in June and ran through January, you deserve an award for perseverance. And those athletes who added to the load by playing two sports at the same time? There should be a special participation award for your accomplishments.

In December, things looked real bleak. The new year rolled around and there started to be rumblings of a return-to-play date later in the month of January. Then, almost all of a sudden, it was on. The first inter-pandemic event in the CCS was a Half Moon Bay at Menlo-Atherton cross country race on Feb. 10 — 336 days from the last high school event on March 11, 2020, and 437 days from the 2019 CCS cross country championships.

The CCS announced there would be no playoffs for those initial sports, or for football, and people were (mostly) OK with that. All anyone wanted at that time was to get back to competition.

While games were ramping up in February, there were continued rumblings from parent groups, youth-sports advocates, student-athletes and the Golden State HS Football Coaches Committee who started applying pressure for the return of football. After meetings with state officials and a deadline looming, the state agreed to a high school football season.

Basketball and volleyball used the same tactics to get their sports back up and running in April and were joined by soccer, lacrosse and track — all at the same time. The threat of lawsuits encouraged local leagues to participate in CCS playoffs for all these sports, making the months of May and June among the busiest I’ve ever encountered.

Not everything went smoothly. A number of athletes and teams were hit by positive COVID tests. Some schools did not field teams in certain sports. Some schools chose not to compete in the playoffs. There were different COVID rules and pandemic regulations depending on where a school was located. Coaches scrambled to find games or reschedule games. Athletes played a baseball game in the afternoon and then hustled to the gym for a basketball game.

There was nothing really normal about the 2021 season. But it was certainly memorable. The student-athletes who participated in sports during this season should have some wild stories to tell their kids in 30 years.

Now that it’s over? I’m going to take a well-earned break. Talk to you in a couple weeks.

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When Gabe Kapler held his introductory press conference after being announced as the San Francisco Giants’ new manager, I said I would give him a chance before passing judgment.

I wasn’t a big fan of the hire. I thought of him as a robot; a “new-age” manager who used the numbers instead of his gut to manage. Many fans were aghast at the hiring because he, along with new president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, formerly worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers and many thought of them as spies for the Giants rivals.

Well, what do you think now? Kapler is the manager of the best team in baseball, with one of the best pitching staffs in the game and an offense that is simply mashing the ball right now.

Sure, not every move Kapler makes pays off, but I think he has certainly earned and deserves respect from the Giants fan base at this point.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: Nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 650-344-5200 ext. 117. Results and statistics can be emailed to: sports@smdailyjournal.com.