Due to COVID-19, all sports have been shut down as of now. However, recently club sports have been reopened if they follow basic guidelines to prevent new cases of COVID-19.But as of today, the only Youth sports that are able to practice and play are Club sports, public high school sports in California have yet to be cleared. Why is that?

    Club sports are local clubs that are dedicated to a single sport like soccer that give the community a way to compete against other communities of the same sport.

    The local Santa Barbara soccer club team has been cleared to play as long as they follow these guidelines. You will find these guidelines at santabarbarasc.org. The players must be registered with a team or be invited to try out or practice with that team. Parents and players must read and sign the return to play COVID-19 waiver. Players must wear masks when in close proximity to other players. Players must undergo temperature checks upon entry. There are fifteen minutes between the start and end of two training sessions. There must be a limited number of players on the field at one time, players who are training next must wait outside the fence until they are cleared to come in and practice. 

However, Santa Barbara High has not been cleared to play yet. Some of the reasons high school sports have been postponed may include the schools would have to open for the sports to be played. For the schools to open the COVID-19 cases would have to go down tremendously. If our school were to open then all other schools in and around our area would have to follow. CIF would have to approve sports to be able to play. There would be a lot of controversy from other sports about when they could open. The school district would have to get all the parents of the students to agree to reopen the school so that their kids could play.

With all these reasons as to why the high school cannot play and Santa Barbara Soccer Club can there is still debate as to why. Some sports like soccer, tennis, baseball should be able to open because they are low risk sports. They are low risk sports because they are played outdoors, and they are played in a very spread out space. Other sports like football and basketball won’t be able to open because they are high risk sports. Meaning they are played in tight spaces and there is a lot of contact. 

 In the end, the high school has started opening. However, only small groups of athletes have been let back onto campus. Since September 30, sports including football, water polo, cheer, volleyball, and cross country have started conditioning workouts. If these sports continue to show progress in training at the high school, hopefully the rest of the sports will be let on to campus to train for an upcoming season. 

Club sports will also continue to be open, but only as long as they keep following the safety measures. Also more and more clubs will start to open back up if people see that other clubs are opening and playing games. However it will be hard to keep these clubs open because as soon as someone from the club gets the coronavirus. In the end hopefully we can keep these clubs open but it will be very hard.