Counting Counties & More Updates

As of Tuesday of this week, only four counties in the state have not reached a case rate of 14 or lower per 100,000. That’s the total as announced nearly two weeks ago that would allow high school football practices to begin in those counties. Schools and school districts are now looking to get to the rate of 7.0 so that they would not have to do weekly testing. Go inside here for details on first team in the state to be hit with a positive test, a look at how schools are scheduling games and players with D1 rides who are deciding to play or not play.

Note: We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. We now know we’ll be getting back to covering actual accomplishments by players, teams and coaches on the field, some as early as March 12. To check out getting a Gold Club membership to see all of our state record updates (five sports), totally authentic historical features, recruiting ratings and more, CLICK HERE.

(School districts can still opt to not start playing sports at the same time as CDPH guidelines say that they can. We know of several in the state that have already cancelled season 1 or fall sports for this school year, including football. Each county listed with its adjusted case rate per day or tier assignment as of Tuesday, March 2 except counties that had already reached the 14.0 magic number.)

FOR LAST WEEK’S COUNTING COUNTIES LIST THAT INCLUDES EACH WITH BORDERING COUNTIES (CRITICAL FOR SCHEDULING PURPOSES), CLICK HERE.

Alameda – Already cleared from previous week. CIF North Coast Section & CIF Oakland Section.
Alpine – No high school in smallest county of state. Students in rural area of Sierra Mountains usually travel to South Tahoe or Douglas County in Nevada).
Amador – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Butte – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Northern Section.
Calaveras – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Colusa – 8.2 (it was 29.7 from previous week so huge improvement so schools can start practice immediately). CIF Northern Section.
Contra Costa – Already cleared from previous week. CIF North Coast Section.

Del Norte – 11.4 (it was 14.5 from previous week so as expected schools can start to practice). CIF North Coast Section.
El Dorado – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Fresno – 14.0 (it was 16.6 previous week and even though it’s not below 14.0 that’s still good enough to allow for schools to start practicing. CIF Central Section.
Glenn – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Northern Section.
Humboldt – Already cleared from previous week. CIF North Coast Section.
Imperial – Already cleared from previous week. CIF San Diego Section.
Inyo – 32.5 (it was 46.5 previous week and still way too high). CIF Central Section.
Kern – 13.6 (it was 16.8 previous week so schools can start practicing immediately). CIF Central Section.
Kings – 16.0 (it was 25.1 from previous week so it may be another week for the Hanford & Lemoore schools). CIF Central Section.
Lake – 11.0 (it was 15.4 previous week so schools can start to practice this week). CIF North Coast Section.
Lassen – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Northern Section.
Los Angeles – Already cleared from previous week. CIF L.A. City Section & CIF Southern Section.
Madera – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Central Section.
Marin – Already cleared from previous week. CIF North Coast Section.
Mariposa – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Mendocino – 7.3 (it was 16.8 from previous week so schools cleared for practices to begin). CIF North Coast Section.
Merced – 16.5 (it was 19.5 from previous week and still too high for football re-start). CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Modoc – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Northern Section.
Mono – The few schools in this rural county on eastern side of Sierra Nevada mountains (including Mammoth of Mammoth Lakes) play in Nevada state association.
Monterey – 10.1 (it was 18.4 from previous week so schools can start practicing). CIF Central Coast Section.
Napa – Already cleared from previous week. CIF North Coast Section.
Nevada – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Orange – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Southern Section.
Placer – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Plumas – Already cleared from previous week.. CIF Northern Section.
Riverside – 11.3 (it was 16.6 from previous week so large county has fallen below total it needs for football restart). CIF Southern Section.
Sacramento – 12.0 (it was 15.3 from previous week so schools can start practices). CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
San Benito – 10.0 (it was 17.2 from previous week so schools can start practices). CIF Central Coast Section.
San Bernardino – 9.0 (it was 15.2 from previous week so schools as they were expecting got green light this week). CIF Southern Section.
San Diego – 10.8 (it was 15.0 from previous week so schools can start practicing). CIF San Diego Section.
San Francisco – Already cleared from previous week. Public schools in CIF San Francisco Section (S.F. Unified). Large private schools (St. Ignatius, Riordan, Sacred Heart Cathedral) in CIF Central Coast Section. Some of smaller private schools in CIF North Coast Section.
San Joaquin – 11.6 (nice drop from 17.1 in our home county from previous week so schools can start full practices). CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
San Luis Obispo – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Central Section (used to be CIF Southern Section).
San Mateo – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Central Coast Section.
Santa Barbara – 13.0 (it was 16.9 from previous week so it’s okay for football practices to begin). CIF Southern Section.
Santa Clara – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Central Coast Section.
Santa Cruz – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Central Coast Section.
Shasta – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Northern Section.
Sierra – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Northern Section. Only one high school (Loyalton).
Siskiyou – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Northern Section.
Solano – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section & CIF North Coast Section.
Sonoma – Already cleared from previous week. CIF North Coast Section.
Stanislaus – 15.7 (it was 20.8 from previous week but still not low enough for a green light). CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Sutter – 13.4 (it was 14.7 from previous week and is now okay for schools to start practices). CIF Northern Section & CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Tehama – 10.2 ( it was 14.1 just off the 14.0 rate from week before and obviously gets things going). CIF Northern Section.
Trinity – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Northern Section.
Tulare – 11.0 (it was 18.2 from previous week so schools can start practicing). CIF Central Section.
Tuolomne – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Ventura – 10.6 (it was 16.9 from previous week so new number clears schools for football practices to begin). CIF Southern Section.
Yolo – Already cleared from previous week. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section & CIF Northern Section.
Yuba – 12.5 (it was 15.1 from previous week so schools can start practicing). CIF Sac-Joaquin Section & CIF Northern Section.

POSITIVE TEST ROCKS
WHITNEY OF ROCKLIN

It wasn’t a matter of when but where would the first reported case of a rejuvenated high school football team in the state get derailed by a positive test for the COVID-19 virus.

The when and where took place on Monday night when it was reported on local TV news stations in the Sacramento market that Whitney High of Rocklin had a positive test and that its first scheduled game for March 12 against its arch-rival from Rocklin High would be cancelled.

There are supposed to be revised guidelines and protocols from the California Department of Public Health issued later this week for testing related to those football teams (and water polo) that will need to have them if their counties are not below 7.0 cases per 100,000. Once a county gets into the red tier, football and water polo are among those sports that can be played without testing. Ironically, on Tuesday for Placer County (where Rocklin is located), the positivity rate did fall below 7.0.

Whitney High officials went by a common practice of shutting down its football program for two weeks as a result of that positive test, but at the time there was no official protocol to follow.

The pandemic clearly is not over and those schools that do need to test will be holding their breath every week. There are false positives to consider and positive results in kids and coaches who may have no symptoms as well.

After the development at Whitney, Rocklin moved quickly to reschedule its first game and instead will play Jesuit of Carmichael on Saturday, March 13.

MANY SCHEDULES ARE OUT: FIRST REACTIONS

Schools with five- and six-game schedules that we’ve seen so far seem to fall into the category of being self-contained with opponents in the same league or district or able to be more flexible in finding suitable competition.

Two great examples of the self-contained spring schedules are SoCal powerhouse Centennial of Corona and NorCal powerhouse Pittsburg. The Huskies are only playing schools in the Corona-Norco Unified School District (Norco, Santiago, Corona, Roosevelt) plus league rival M.L. King (Riverside). The Pirates are only playing schools in their Bay Valley Athletic League (Freedom of Oakley, Heritage of Brentwood, Liberty of Brentwood, Deer Valley of Antioch and Antioch).

A great example of a school looking for more flexibility is Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth, which lost to Central of Fresno at the end of the 2019 fall season with a very high number of leading underclassmen. The Trailblazers will start out on March 13 at 2019 CIF Open Division state champion St. John Bosco and then will face St. Bernard (Playa del Rey), Oaks Christian (Westlake Village), Garces (Bakersfield), Upland and Paraclete (Lancaster). Sierra Canyon, an L.A. County school, is playing opponents from Ventura, Kern and San Bernardino counties in addition to the two from its own county.

Both St. John Bosco and its arch-rivals from Mater Dei (Santa Ana) are playing their other Trinity League opponents as well as each other. The Braves and Monarchs will end the season against each other on April 16 and that game also likely will determine State Team of the Year honors.

Another reminder that school districts will have the final say in all of this came out on Tuesday when the Porterville Unified School District cancelled its fall sports for the current school year. This covers Porterville High, Granite Hills High, Monache High and small school state power Strathmore.

The current CDPH travel guidelines also are having a huge impact on schedules, especially for smaller, rural schools in counties that may not be bordering on counties from schools even in the same league. Linden High in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section, for example, is going to play larger public schools in its same county (San Joaquin) because it can’t play teams from its league in other counties.

SOME D1-BOUND PLAYERS STILL DECIDING WHAT TO DO

For many of the seniors in the Class of 2021 who already have scholarships at D1 colleges, the choice to graduate early and get started at the next chapters of their lives is easy.

We’ll have a list of all of them we know of and will be continuing to check on them as we put together a preseason all-state team plus preseason all-state medium school and small school all-state watch lists.

Regardless, it’s not an easy choice for any of them. When De La Salle of Concord’s six-game schedule was announced last week, it also was reported by the Bay Area News Group that the quarterback Dorian Hale (Sacramento State) and receiver Lu-Magia Hearns (Cal) would not be playing. The next day, though, the duo apparently switched and will be playing for the Spartans after all.

Quarterbacks leaving early, of course, has been going on for many years. It’s just for this year that a lot more of those from other positions have been doing the same.

Thomas Cole, the 6-foot-7, 255-pound offensive tackle from San Luis Obispo who was first-team all-state juniors and was a grid-hooper to watch as well, is one of those players.

“Thomas decided to graduate early and get down there (to UCLA),” mentioned his father, David. “He has almost completed his first quarter. Crazy.”

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports