Questions still remain for Peninsula Athletic League football

Then, a bombshell was dropped during a San Mateo Union High School District meeting during which Superintendent Kevin Skelly insisted all opponents of district football teams must also adopt COVID testing protocol as well.

The SMUHSD is adopting more stringent protocol than the state, which say no testing is mandated in the red tier, in which San Mateo County currently resides.

With all that being said, the plan to play is moving forward.

“The PAL schedule has been voted on and approved and we hope to play every contest as it appears, knowing things can change quickly as teams may or may not be available for myriad issues,” said Steve Sell, Aragon football coach and senior athletic director for the PAL. “Hopefully, the season transpires as it’s written on the schedule, but I think we have to be ready for some scratches. It would be naïve to think we’re going to get through the season without a cancelation.”

Scratches have already occurred. Sell said he talked with Mills athletic director Tim Keller, who told him their scheduled game with Woodside has already been canceled. Meanwhile, Terra Nova and Jefferson have not even taken the field to begin practice yet and, unlike other school districts, Jefferson did not even allow conditioning programs for their high school teams.

“I have not seen my [players] since the last day we were on campus on the last day before the shutdown. It will be around 360 days since I saw them last,” said Jefferson head coach Sergio Portela Jr., who said his team, along with Terra Nova, can begin practicing Monday.

“We were not allowed to (work out during the summer). We would be starting at the very beginning.”

Both Jefferson and Terra Nova have said they will not be ready to play that first Friday, March 12, but Portela Jr. is confident that his team will be ready to play in Week 2 against Capuchino March 20.

“I hate to say it, but we have to be in playing shape after 10 practices,” Portela Jr. said. “One thing I’ve told my kids is, in life, you can’t always control the narrative. … So we’re not going to make excuses. Whether we’re given a two-game schedule or six games, you’re never going to hear us complain.”

But that game against the Mustangs may be problematic if the SMUHSD’s testing mandate is enforced. The six schools in the SMUHSD have been testing since the return of sports last month and was a main reason why those six schools decided to form their own division for girls’ golf and tennis, cross country and swimming.

“I’ve told my coaches we’re just playing it week by week,” said Jeff Scheller, San Mateo football coach and AD whose team is scheduled to scrimmage Half Moon Bay Friday.

“They’re getting tested,” Scheller said.

He went on to add that Burlingame head coach John Philipopoulos sent out an email to Burlingame’s opponents, telling them they need to be tested if they are to play Burlingame.

Scheller said it’s not difficult to get the testing done. The difficulty lies in setting up the procedures and protocol to do so. He said his players are tested on the San Mateo campus. Half Moon Bay, Scheller said, had to go to the free testing site at College of San Mateo.

“We are so used to doing it. We have a system in place. It’s second nature to us,” Scheller said of the SMUHSD schools.

“It’s not a bad thing to get tested, especially if the testing is free. For the San Mateo district, it’s so much easier. But for the other schools doing it for the first time, during the week of a game? It’s tough.”

Despite the questions still swirling around a season, Scheller said the overriding concern has to be simply to get the student-athletes out competing again. If it means having to find a new opponent at the last minute? So be it. Have to play the same team twice? If that’s what it takes, yes.

“It goes back to the experiences (for the kids). It’s not about winning a championship,” Scheller said.

Added Sell: “As coaches, we have to rewind the tape of the stuff we said back in the fall. It’s about the kids playing. … Everyone is so desperate to play. If at the last minute you have to switch opponents, whatever. You’re still playing.”