Important dates loom

The first big date is Friday, July 17, when the California Community College Athletic Association will make a definitive decision on, at least, the fall sports schedule for the 2020-21 academic year.

As things stand today, July 7, the current plan in place adopted by the CCCAA is a modified fall schedule, especially for the upcoming football season. The other significant portion of the plan is to move men’s and women’s basketball to the spring season.

Like everything else over the last three-plus months, all plans are currently written in pencil, with the expectation an eraser is going to get a workout. There is still a chance the CCCAA moves football to the spring and some schools have already taken themselves out of the equation by straight up canceling the upcoming fall season.

The following Monday, July 20, the California Interscholastic Federation is expected to set the calendar dates for the CIF postseason, which includes the regional and state championship tournaments.

There is a bit more wiggle room when it comes to high school sports, inasmuch as there are still a couple levels below the CIF that still can make decisions independent of the state governing board.

All the CIF can control is its own playoffs. It has no say on the Central Coast Section postseason. In normal times, the CCS and the other sections in the state, would simply align their playoffs to seamlessly work with the CIF tournament dates.

As we have all come to know, these are not normal times and the sections don’t have to line up their playoff calendar with the state’s if they don’t like the way the health situation looks. It would preclude those sections from playing in the CIF tournaments for the upcoming season, however.

But even leagues in the section can say they’re not interested in playing in the CCS playoffs, which would also keep those schools who opt out from participating in the state playoffs.

But there is so much more at stake than simply the playoffs. There is a real possibility that sports generally played in the fall, most notably football, could be moved to a spring start. Meanwhile, other sports where social distancing efforts can be kept in place, could move into non-traditional seasons. Swimming moving from spring to fall, for instance.

“We just got a survey from CIF asking what sports we’d be prepared to offer in the fall,” said Melissa Schmidt, Sequoia athletic director, who added the PAL is leaning toward offering boys’ and girls’ cross country, golf, swimming and tennis during the fall season. She said a meeting with PAL commissioner Terry Stogner is scheduled for this week to further discuss contingencies.

Unlike the CCCAA which will have it’s schedule set after July 17, high schools still have a little more time to figure things out.

“What we’re going to do is wait for CIF, then CCS and then once we see what their plans are, then … is this something we (the PAL) can do?” Schmidt said.

Ultimately, that will be the bottom-dollar question: is this something we can do?

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A pair of San Mateo County natives, San Carlos’ Nick Garcia and San Mateo’s Petey Halpin, both signed professional baseball contracts last week after being selected in the third round of the MLB draft last month.

Nick Garcia — a 6-4, 215-pound, right-hander pitcher who graduated Serra in 2017 and completed his junior year at Chapman University — was selected with the 79th pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He signed a $1.2 million deal, which was almost double his slotted value of $780,000.

Joining Garcia in the Pirates system is his Chapman battery mate, catcher Joe Jimenez, a 2016 St. Ignatius graduate.

Halpin was drafted with the No. 95 pick by Cleveland. He played San Mateo American Little League and spent his first three seasons of high school ball at St. Francis in Mountain View before spending his abbreviated senior year at Mira Costa High School in Southern California.

Halpin, a 6-foot, 180-pound outfielder, signed for $1.525 million, more than double his expected slot value of $610,000. By signing a pro contract, Halpin gives up his baseball scholarship to University of Texas.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117.