High School Sports Schedules: Everything You Should Know

Sports schedules may seem simple, though there is more to them that meets the eye. From scheduling going through the process of non-league games, to deciding which school they would like to play, to the risk of overworking the athletes body, there is a lot to unpack.

By: Fabian Anguiano

Redwood High Schools athletic director, Mr. Michael Wright communicates with opposing AD’s to agree and schedule match up’s.

“Our coaches let me know what team they want to play or that they have talked to another team’s coach, and they have agreed to play and a date.  At that point, I either request a date with the opposing team’s AD or I confirm the agreed-upon date with the opposing coach,” said Mr. Wright.

Once they agree on a date and time, it is then confirmed and it is added to the schedule. The process is the same if a school emails him first.

Connecting with opposing AD’s is pretty simple; it is usually an email requesting to play them, they ask the coach, and when the date is confirmed, it is locked in.

If not, it is an email stating that the coaches have talked and agreed upon a date.

A conflict in this process is very rare, “The only time that really happens is when you are trying to get a date to play and there is confusion or a mistake on the date,” says Mr. Wright. “Mistakes do happen but not very often. It gets very difficult and there are numerous conflicts when you are trying to make up an athletic contest due to bad air quality, heat, or rain.”

Mr. Wright said, “Coaches want to play other teams for a variety of reasons, and those differ from school to school.  In our case, we first try to play teams that will help us in the seeding for the playoffs.”

Their strategy is that Mr. Wright says is “we mostly like to schedule D1 or D2 teams that are going to be good and will help us get a better seed.” 

Sometimes, schedules may have to be made easier or harder due to returning members of the team to ensure a certain type of success.

It is not an easy process, but coaches put a lot of effort into it.

Mr. Wright had more to say, “Scheduling is a tough process, and there are many factors that go into it.  For one example, it is very difficult to schedule a home wrestling meet because the basketball team cannot practice, and they will have a game the next day.”

This issue affects all sports. “Softball, for example, cannot schedule home events until soccer is over because they share the field and are required to have home run fence, but we can not put it up due to soccer practice,” said Mr. Wright. “So facilities sometimes dictate what we can do.”  

“A coach has to think about how many of their potential starters will be in another sport, like football, kids in the playoffs who also wrestle or play basketball and soccer.  That will change the schedule for basketball greatly.  So it is important to know that everyone tries to schedule with many factors in mind, and it is not an easy process.”

Michael Wright, Redwood High School Athletic Director

El Diamante’s athletic director Watamura Kimberly was most recently the league scheduler.

This was her first year doing it, though she will now be leaving the position, as there will be changes to the league next year.

For scheduling, there was a formula created by the previous scheduler. So it is a matter of plugging in the school names and then sending it out to all other AD’s for confirmation.

Ranger football head Coach Curtis Allen does not decide the schedule, but he does have a say in what non-league teams he would like to face.

Coach Allen says, “We talk about games behind the AD; he does most of that for us. So he’ll ask me about a team, and they usually just kind of look at it and see who got to open on the schedule.”

Coach Allen has a list of schools he would like to play in the preseason, “Eventually I want to play Clovis North again. Well, we don’t have them on the schedule this year because we got on the scale that wants to play the city schools, I think because of travel.”

“For me I want to play a team like Bosco, Mater Dei, one of those schools in the preseason, not just schools around here,” says Coach Allen. “Even a school like Central East.”

The benefits of these type of games are bigger than the game itself, “So it could go either way. The benefits are, you get used to playing a tough opponent in the preseason, and you get a chance to play a tough opponent early,” said Coach Allen.

To be the best, you have to beat the best, “Athletes, like a Central East, like a Bosco, like a Mater Dei, you know, like a centennial,” said Coach Allen. “They’re good every year. They always got,10, 15, 20 guys, that’s what you want to play.”

“We need to be able to play the really good schools around here in our area, the closest Bakersfield schools, and then we need to play one of those really tough teams from Southern California or Northern California, like a Folsom team, and really get our guys ready for the playoffs when we hit the state playoffs.”

Curtis Allen, Redwood High School Football Coach

Extra games can be good for preparing for the season, but it can also overwork the athlete’s body in what is called tendinitis.

Our very own Athletic Trainer Alex Ramos believes this theory.

“Yes, I do think that playing in a lot more games, especially nowadays, there is a lot more workload with kids playing club sports and then coming to high school sports, and then doing more,” says Alex. “You know that can also lead to injuries, because it’s a lot of overuse.”

Avoiding this is tricky Alex says “it is kind of a difficult question, because I don’t think you can avoid it, because it’s going to happen. People want to play more, and I don’t disagree with them, because I was an athlete too.”

The best way to at least try to avoid this is “dieting daily, like the amount of hours that you sleep in a day, recoveries, and stuff like that. So the proper diet, you know, nutrition, and then just rest,” is key to preventing injuries says Alex.

Tags: fabian anguiano, football, rangers, Redwood, redwood athletics, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood sports, scheduling, Sport, visalia ca