The Valley Oak League is ready to let the games begin.
Ten athletic directors met with league commissioner Norm Antinetti and president Steve Clark Wednesday morning to put the finishing touches on schedules and safety mitigation protocols. The league’s two-season calendar will be sent to the Sac-Joaquin Section for review before making it official.
“Hats off to the ADs,” Clark said. “They rolled up their sleeves and got it done today. Their work is going to help bring joy and some sense of normalcy to a lot of people, especially our student-athletes, their parents and the campus communities.”
The VOL’s “Season 1” calendar includes cross country, swimming, girls golf and boys tennis and has already begun with official practices starting this week. First contests are set for Feb. 16, and the eight-week season ends April 2.
Last week, the SJS canceled the postseason for all sports and approved a proposal that allows its 26 leagues to configure their own schedules. This gives leagues and their member schools flexibility as they begin sports in accordance to protocols set by local health agencies.
Last Friday, the seven-member VOL voted to welcome Escalon and Ripon from the Trans-Valley League and Ripon Christian from the Southern Athletic League for the 2020-21 academic year. They’re joining Manteca Unified’s East Union, Manteca, Sierra and Weston Ranch along with Central Catholic, Oakdale and Kimball. Lathrop is staying in the Western Athletic Conference but is open to facing VOL teams for non-league contests if schedules line up.
Only a handful of sports are starting up under guidelines from the California Department of Public Health — cross country, golf, tennis, swimming and track and field. These low-contact, outdoor sports are allowed in counties that remain in the most-restrictive purple tier of the state’s reopening plan.
The VOL has decided to keep boys and girls seasons separate for golf and tennis.
“That’s a venue (issue),” Clark said. “In tennis, we’d have split up court time between the boys and girls teams for practices and matches and that would require the kids to miss a lot of class time. The ADs take academics into consideration as well.”
Escalon and the two Ripon schools traditionally compete under a coed format for tennis but will field separate boys and girls teams while in the VOL.
Girls tennis, boys golf and track are part of the league’s Season 2 calendar with the rest of the sports. Baseball and softball may take place for counties that advance into the red tier. Football, soccer, volleyball and water polo are in the orange tier. Basketball and wrestling are in the yellow.
Practices for Season 2 sports begin March 22 with two exceptions. Pitchers and catchers report on March 15 while football is penciled in for March 8, if the county reaches the orange tier by then. The final contest date for football is April 17. The contest schedule runs from March 19 to June 4 for the rest of the sports.
“We want to give kids the optimum experience, especially the multi-sport athletes,” Clark said. “No matter what we do, the main thing is to get the kids back on the court, field, pool and track.”
