Sports have drastically changed as a result of the pandemic due to close contact and player-to-player interaction in many sports at Aliso. However, as Aliso students have progressed through the first semester, sports have also progressed to a point where many are practicing, while some have even begun to compete.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) introduced a tier list implemented on Jan. 25 based on location, contact, and interaction in order to determine whether certain sports would compete or not. Also, the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) declared that there would only be two seasons of sports this year: fall and spring.

With this being said, Boys Cross Country has competed in two races against Dana Hills and El Toro while Girls Cross Country has competed in one race against San Juan Hills. Both teams have two duals left in the season and there is hope for a league final of some sort in the near future if the county allows the teams to compete.

However, on Feb. 19, the CDPH released an update that allowed any outdoor sport in the red or the orange tier to begin competing if their county’s case rate dropped below 14 out of every 100,000.

Some of the other outdoor sports like football, girls volleyball, and boys and girls water polo all fall under the orange tier of the tier list provided by the state of California and the California Department of Public Health. 

As COVID-19 cases reached a rate of 11.7 on Feb. 23, Orange County schools were able to begin their seasons.

This is great news for all outdoor Aliso sports teams as they have begun competing for the first time this year.

According to Mr. Mashburn, “We now have the approval from the state and county to begin competing in all outdoor sports. That means football, baseball, softball, lacrosse, and soccer, sports that were originally in the red or orange tier can now compete, even though Orange County is in the purple tier.”

The teams are ready to begin their seasons as they look to have successful seasons despite the setback they faced from COVID-19.

Although outdoor sports have been allowed to continue, the CDPH implemented strict guidelines that all students and coaches are required to follow.

The CDPH states, “For high-risk contact sports (basketball, field hockey, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, rugby, soccer, squash, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling), competition between teams is permitted only if the team can provide COVID-19 testing and results of all athletes and support staff within 48 hours of each competition.”

This means that testing is necessary when competing in close-contact sports.

However, the guidelines set forth by the tier list of the CDPH have not helped any of the indoor sports such as wrestling, volleyball, basketball, dance, and cheer. The teams hope to see some sort of update that will allow them to participate throughout the rest of the year.

Mr. Mashburn says, “There is still a lot of planning taking place but we are ecstatic to have more sports begin in the coming weeks.”

Overall, sports during the pandemic have been extremely difficult, but coaches and staff are putting large sums of time and dedication into continuing sports at Aliso. As the seasons begin and progress, students at Aliso will continue to support and encourage all teams representing Teal.

UPDATE (April 22, 2021) – All sports have continued and CIF has announced that it plans to have team championships for all season two sports.

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