Let’s play two

What made the familiar fall-winter-spring seasons so enticing to athletes is it allowed them to play sports year-round. The football/volleyball season transitioned seamlessly into basketball and then into baseball, softball, or any the other six spring sports from which athletes could choose.

The CIF’s decision which crams all 20 sports into a six-month window means athletes will have to, in addition to playing a fall sport, choose between a winter or spring sport — basketball or baseball? Wrestling or track?

But is there a way to play two sports at the same time? There have been instances of it happening — Serra’s DonAndre Clark played baseball and ran track in the mid-2000s, while 2017 Daily Journal Athlete of the Year Alex Laubscher played baseball and golf concurrently.

But the rules in the Peninsula Athletic League does not allow such a double, but that may change for 2021 and who is to say it’s not doable? If there is one thing many coaches and administrators have adopted as a mantra is: You must be flexible.

I think there is a way athletes could play two sports at the same time. There are only a few with which it could work, but it is doable — but it’s going to take a lot of cooperation from coaches.

“One of the oldest adages in sports is, if you don’t practice, you don’t play,” said Steve Sell, Aragon football coach and athletic director.

But, it is conceivable a varsity athlete could play any spring sport and at the time play basketball. Nearly all sports during the spring season are played in the afternoon. Days are longer and everything is outside.

Varsity basketball games, meanwhile, all have night starts. It is conceivable an athlete could compete in the spring sport of their choice and then hustle over to the gym for a basketball game that night.

Even better, would be to play a sport that alternates game days — like Tuesday-Thursday softball games and Wednesday-Friday night basketball games.

“Is it doable?” Sell asked. “Think about what things are going on in the summer. … A kid will go to an open gym, (for a basketball) scrimmage in July, then might go drive off and play a 6 p.m. baseball game.

“Under these circumstances, one has to think long and hard before they say a solution, that is good for kids, is undoable.”

***

Somehow, some way, the long coronavirus break was good for the San Jose Earthquakes, because they have looked like a different team since the start of the poorly-named “MLS is Back” tournament.

Essentially, it’s a World Cup-style tournament in which teams play three teams in pool play before moving on to the single-elimination bracket.

If this was March, it would have been three and see ya for the Quakes, who were 0-1-1 in two games and were coming off a 5-2 thrashing at the hands of Minnesota United when the season was suspended.

Now they’re back and they look nothing like that March team. With Sunday’s 2-0 win over Chicago, San Jose won Group B and will face the third-place finisher from Group A.

In three games since the tournament started, San Jose is 2-0-1. The Quakes opened the tournament with a lackluster, but important, tie with the defending MLS champion Seattle Sounders.

Last Wednesday, they were the talk of soccer as they scored three goals in the final 20 minutes, including the game-winner in the ninth-minute of stoppage time, to stun the Vancouver Whitecaps. They wrapped up pool play with a two-goal second half against Chicago.

Next up for San Jose is a 5:30 p.m. meeting with New York City FC Sunday in a round-of-16 match up.

Now if they could just do something about those hideous uniforms. Hopefully the stripe-and-solid abomination is simply an alternate jersey.

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