Schools had to decide: to play or not to play?

By LOU PONSI

OCVarsity.com

To play or not to play.

That’s the dilemma the county’s high school football leagues have been faced with since public school superintendents agreed Thursday to ban all athletic events scheduled for this weekend because of the poor air quality caused by the fires.

Many leagues rescheduled games for Monday and Tuesday, while other leagues canceled Week 8 games all together.

On Friday, the Freeway and Pacific Coast leagues decided not to make up the canceled games, joining the Empire and Trinity leagues, which made that decision Thursday.

Athlete safety has been cited as the main reason leagues opted not to play Monday or Tuesday.

Many districts have prohibited any outdoor physical activity since Monday, forcing teams to do workouts in gyms, weight rooms or, in some cases, not at all.

El Dorado coach Jeff Bailey, whose Golden Hawks are playing a Century League contest with El Modena at 4 p.m. Monday, said playing a game as physically demanding as football without proper preparation might be just as dangerous as playing in poor air quality conditions.

“I want to play, but I don’t want to put my kids in a position that could jeopardize them,” Bailey said. “The fact that we have not (physically) prepared players for a game concerns me.”

In addition to playing with limited preparation, some league representatives were concerned with the demands of playing on Monday, then having to play again on Friday.

“At the level the Trinity League plays, it would not be safe,” Orange Lutheran principal Gregg Pinick said. “To suit up kids this week with no practice and put them out there, we agreed was not a good idea. “

Another sticky matter arose Friday when some coaches, whose leagues did agree to play Monday, said they won’t play.

Sea View League officials Thursday decided to play makeup games, but Woodbridge coach Rick Gibson said he would forfeit his league contest with Trabuco Hills, rescheduled for Monday.

Northwood coach Rick Curtis said he has asked Sea View League officials to reconsider their decision to play makeup games.

If the league doesn’t reverse its ruling, Curtis said he will also forfeit.

“At this point, the safety part really concerns me,” Curtis said. “Safety has got to be first.”