The most anticipated, and almost certainly the strangest high school football season in California history, will begin for local teams on Friday, March 12 with Petaluma playing at Justin-Siena and Casa Grande at home against Vintage. St. Vincent’s schedule had not been announced at press time, but the Mustangs, too, will be playing for real that weekend.
The state cleared the way for football practice to start Friday, and Tuesday the Petaluma City Schools District bought into the plan for a six-game season that will consist of only league games. Under new state rules, football will be allowed in counties where the cases of COVID-19 infections are 14 or less per 100,000 population. By Tuesday, Sonoma County barely made the cut. Barring a major change, the season will continue to its conclusion even if a county exceeds the threshold.
“I feel great for the players,” said Petaluma Coach Rick Krist, Casa Grande Coach John Antonio and St. Vincent Coach Trent Herzog, expressing the same feelings in almost the same words in separate interviews.
The state has mandated that the 2020-2021 season must conclude by April 16 to allow to allow teams to prepare for the 2021-2022 season on a normal schedule.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” said Petaluma High Athletic Director Ray McClintock “There is a lot to work out, but we can deal with the obstacles. It is awesome to see that the players will be able to get out and compete.”
At Petaluma High, Krist began laying out Trojan football gear for the first time in more than a year. “We hope to have every kid with gear by the end of the week,” he said. The coach plans to have a real practice by Friday.
“Our seniors are really pumped up,” he said. “We have some amazing leadership. I am really happy for our seniors. It has been a lot of hard work to get here. I hope this is the beginning of good things, not just for the athletes. I hope it is a good positive step for everybody.”
At St. Vincent, Herzog plans to have the Mustangs in pads by next week. He said 70 to 80 percent of his players have been participating in ongoing training sessions.
“We’re excited,” he said. “We will probably have a five-game season, but that is better than none. No one thought this was going to happen.
At Casa Grande, Antonio, in anticipation of the decision to get started, had the Gauchos hold their training under the lights Monday.
“It was a good night,” he said. “It wasn’t normal, but there was a feeling of normalcy. There were a lot of smiling kids and a feeling of optimism. We were getting ready for football on Feb. 22. How normal is that? But the players were ecstatic. There was a really good feeling. ”
He pointed out there is still work to do to get teams back onto the field for games. “We still have a lot of hoops to go through,” he said. “We still have to deal with the pandemic. We still have to take precautions.”
Antonio said the resumption of football showed the players that their sacrifices were rewarded. “It showed them that their patience and doing right paid off, that the process worked,” he said.
The season will be different as teams comply with pandemic-induced modifications.
Every coach and player will be required to take a weekly COVID-19 test based on the county’s case rate. The state will provide the tests at no cost to the schools.
Everyone -- athletes, coaches, officials and all observers must wear a face mask at all times except when they are not in actual competition.
There will be no section or CIF playoff competition.