COVID-19 Temporarily Shuts Down VUSD Spring Sports Seasons

By: Krissy Hetherington

As of March 13th, the Tulare County Health Department has reported the first confirmed case of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Tulare County. By March 17th, Tulare County remains at 3 positive cases and 78 people under self-quarantine and being treated by Tulare County Public Health officials.

On Thursday, Visalia Unified School District (VUSD) took action by cancelling or postponing all extra-curricular and co-curricular activities through April 30th where they will readdress the issue. Later in the day, the West Yosemite League suspended all sports contests until further notice.

According to Redwood Assistant Principal, Mr. Palonelli, the original plan was for teams to be able to play sports within the league only. But as teams were travelling on that Thursday afternoon, a meeting took place at Redwood where they noticed that other school districts such as Clovis Unified and Fresno Unified cancelled games and competitions all together.

It’s an unusual situation that overall no one planned for or imagined ever happening so moving forward will be for VUSD Athletic Directors to meet weekly, “the script is being written as we go,” said Mr. Palonelli.

“There is more hope for high school athletes than college because the NCAA has just declared the spring season done. CIF didn’t cancel the spring playoffs yet so there is still that hope.”

Redwood Principal, Mr. Shin

“The athletes have to continue to prepare like they have an upcoming event. Motivation isn’t the only thing but it takes discipline. Motivation only lasts so long but discipline is what will get you through it,” said Palonelli.

This decision was made minutes before Redwood Baseball kicked off their league opener against Lemoore. All three levels decided to combine for an Inner-squad scrimmage that day.

“Obviously I was disappointed but there’s really nothing we can do but try to get better individually and stay sharp so when they lift the band, the team will be ready to go,” said long-time Baseball Head Coach, Dan Hydash.

The boys hold a 2-7 overall record after playing all Clovis schools in the TRAC League and were expecting to carry those lessons and experiences into the second part of their season.

“We knew coming in that we were going to be young and not only that but inexperienced…Being so young is a blessing so everyone is learning at the same time, they are learning the way we want them to do things so there’s not a lot of bad habits for us to fix yet,” said Hydash.

The team holds a lot of talent with a strong mix of older guys like Ryan Rios, Lee Trevino, Dakota Brown, and Diego Alvarado plus younger talent like freshman, Daryl Tillman said Hydash.

For the past 30 years, Redwood has hosted a Visalia Tennis Invitational that was also cancelled the day before. Not only do the kids lose out on the annual fun and competition of the tournament but the program’s finances took a great hit.

Head coach, Russ Brown, states that the team paid over $2000 on T-shirts and over $400 on awards that cannot be reimbursed because of the year printed onto the items.

“From a bigger picture I understand why this decision was made but I put in hours and hours to make this tournament come to life,” said Brown who organized 300 different players and coaches including nineteen non-VUSD schools’ entry fees.

Before the tournament, the team had a 4-6 record and were prepared to enter league to defend their 7th year in a row WYL Championship title.

“I was really looking forward to doing well this season and trying to win WYL for my last year, overall it’s just a disappointing situation,”

Varsity Tennis player, Tristen Schieferle

As most teams continued to practice on Friday afternoon, another notice was sent out by the VUSD which decided to close schools immediately until April 13th where they will re-evaluate the status and determine to remain closed or re-open.

As long as schools are closed, practices may not be held by any teams on campus, said VUSD SuperIntendent, Tamara Ravalin. Coaches may send voluntary workout plans and advice for the athletes but that is all.

“COVID-19 is serious because the population has not built up an immunity to the virus. Healthy persons can carry the virus without symptoms and spread the virus to others.  It is important to close schools so that we help protect our community from the spread. It is important that students and teachers stay home as much as possible and practice social distancing and the recommendations of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) such as frequent handwashing,” says Ravalin.

In regards to the future of the spring sport seasons, Ravalin, who is also a chairperson on the CIF Superintendent’s Interleague Council explained that a plan should be developed to allow athletes to re-condition prior to resuming competitive meets and games. 

“We discussed resuming competitions in May but that will depend on the spread of the virus…possibly some games/meets could be made up but that the season would end at the normal time. The reason for ending on time is that Divisional and State Finals are already set for most sports,” she said.

The Track and Field team planned on sending a select few athletes to the Clovis East Carnival on Friday afternoon but were told it was cancelled on Thursday. This would have been the team’s second meet of the season after competing in Sanger last week where the team was able to compete with some of the best in the Valley including Buchanan and Central proving early strength in the season.

“It all happened so fast, I really didn’t have a chance to say any final thoughts to our student-athletes. I hope we can return to our season and find some type of way to modify our league, area and section meets I know our athletes are hungry and will be ready once we get the green light to come back to athletics. As a track program, we will do everything in our power to get our student athletes opportunities to compete and thrive during the condensed season.”

Redwood Track and Field Coach, Travis Roebuck

He encourages his athletes over the break, “Keep a positive mindset, find a routine you can stay with and continue to compete in some way shape or form. As the nature of this closure continues to escalate, find ways to stay sharp. But most importantly, be safe. Isolate your training so you are not in large groups or over populated areas.”

For many seniors, this news is devastating as this was their final chance to be noticed by a college scout and it simply being their last high school season.

“Years of hard work for the pinnacle of your sporting career and it’s just gone, I needed time from this season to continue to swim in college and it’s over,” said Nathan Thompson, 4 year varsity swimmer. 

For Katie Sullivan, she plans to go to Point Loma which does not have a swim team so this was her last year swimming regardless. She has been swimming with her best friends and teammates, Alex Roberts and Skylar Ford, since they were 8. “We were really looking forward to one final season together and now we’re missing the memories and fun times. We still are going to all practice on our own in hopes that WYL and Valley will resume late April.”

The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Board plans to address the questions regarding the future of spring sports seasons in their meeting this Tuesday-Wednesday, March 17-18.