Peninsula Athletic League coaches wrestling with a return to the mat

But Ray Reyes, longtime El Camino wrestling coach and the league’s sports chair, said he believes those schedules are placeholders — for now. Reyes, who said he just saw the PAL schedule this week, said talks are on going between PAL coaches about what the season will look like.

“We have to find out whose going to be in (to participate),” Reyes said. “It’s going to depend on many schools field teams and where the need goes. … Who’s in and what does ‘in’ look like?”

The biggest question for Peninsula wrestling programs every season is having enough numbers. The Ocean Division uses a jamboree-style format because many teams simple cannot fill out an entire 14-wrestler lineup. Those numbers issues could impact teams in the Bay Division as well this season.

“I’ve only had a handful of kids show real interest,” Reyes said. “We’d be lucky to get 15 (wrestlers this season) — and that’s JV and girls and varsity.”

Reyes is hoping that El Camino’s decision Wednesday to allow student-athletes to participate in more than one sport at a time might allow him to recruit a few more athletes to the wrestling team. But even that would require some juggling on the part of players and coaches.

“I might get another handful coming out (for the wrestling team),” Reyes said. “There is a three-hour practice limit a day, so you’d have to coordinate with the other sports about how long to practice each.”

Reyes said the Colts are allowed indoors, but they still are not “practicing” by any definition. He said his wrestlers are still not allowed contact and it’s hard to determine what 10% capacity of a wrestling room is.

“We’re inside, but our team is going a couple days a week,” Reyes said.

Another hold up is that while San Mateo County has entered the orange stage in color-tiered reopening protocol, the various school districts have different sets of restrictions. The Jefferson school district — which covers Jefferson, Oceana, Terra Nova and Jefferson — only recently decided to start up high school sports, but with severe restrictions, which includes a ban on indoor practices at this time. Reyes said the South San Francisco school district just this week allowed South City and El Camino teams back in the gym and wrestling room, but with social distancing requirements and capacity limits still in place. And Reyes still doesn’t have an official word on COVID-19 testing for his student-athletes.

“Everyone is in kind of a different boat,” Reyes said. “We’re all in the same county, but everybody has someone different to answer to.”

Reyes said while the PAL wrestling coaches have been in contact and planning for an eventual return, there are still details to figure out. But at the end of the day, he said there is excitement building for whatever a wrestling season may look like, considering only a few weeks ago it didn’t look like any indoor sports were going to be allowed.

“Our first meeting was in October, just to forecast what might happen,” Reyes said. “Once the governor let football in, more chatter started. … The [wrestling coaches] who were really in, were glad when football was let in. The guys who were less than in, were glad when basketball was back in.

“We just want the kids back on the mat. … My advice to our PAL coaches is, just be ready. We’re a sport they love to forget about. We help them (forget about wrestling) by not being prepared.”

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.