CSUN On Point

The COVID-19 pandemic put many high school sports on pause for much of the last year. 

But following pressure from groups like “Let Them Play California,” officials in the state’s Department of Public Health and the California Interscholastic Federation recently announced new rules allowing all sports in California to resume play.

That includes not only outdoor sports like football, but indoor sports like basketball and volleyball. The addition of indoor sports comes after a deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office last week. 

The deal also calls for mandatory COVID-19 testing for all players and coaches.

Under the new rules, high school sports will be allowed to return when a county’s case rate drops below fourteen daily COVID cases per hundred thousand people. Case rates in several Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, just dipped below that level recently.

This debate over whether to let these athletes go back and play has been intense in California. 

Bradley Hensley says he co-founded Let Them Play California “out of desperation.”

He said his organization grew as limitations on high school sports stretched beyond last spring, and then through the summer.

“We got to the fall, they canceled, they postponed the season. And they kept saying ‘Oh, next month, next month’” Hensley said. “And they finally issued guidance [on high school sports] in December, and once they issued guidance, we realized the kids would probably never play again and they had no outlets.”

”We basically understood there was no voice for youth rights,” Hensley added. “We really didn’t know what we were doing frankly, and we said, “okay let’s start a Facebook page.” 

 Hensley’s  son is a junior and a quarterback on his high school’s football team. Like many athletes, his son hopes his performance on the field can help him get into college.  

“In order to get recruited,” Hensley said, “he needs to have a varsity film and with no games, there’s no film — so [colleges] don’t look at California kids.”

Hosting a sporting event is not without risk. In a guidance document about youth sporting events, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control advises that “safely hosting a large event, including sporting events, in areas where there are high levels of COVID-19 within the community will be challenging.”

But Hensley says many parents worry about the physical and mental health risks of preventing high schoolers from participating in the sports they love.  

“We have a mental health crisis with our kids because they have no outlets,” Hensley said. “The damage we’re gonna see is a second pandemic. Depression, isolation, suicide ideation and sadly suicide. 

“Sports are proven to help kids both emotionally physically, and psychologically,” Hensley added. “ They’ve lost out on that for several months.” 

Clarissa Nuñez, a cross country and track athlete at Oxnard High School, says being away from her team has been hard.“I tended to isolate myself a lot because of the pandemic and because sports were canceled a while now,” Nuñez said. “I just worked out in my room but it’s not the same when you go outside with a team.”

Some coaches wonder how much time with limited practices, training or conditioning will affect some athletes. 

“I don’t want to rush things,” said Darnell Furman, the basketball coach at Alta Loma High School in Rancho Cucamonga. “I still wanna give them as much time as possible to get in shape. Even though we wanna be playing right away I’m concerned with their fitness so I’m gonna have to watch minutes.”

Nuñez has been mentally and physically getting ready.

“I need to like get back out there,” she said. “I had to do you know yoga, I have to run more because I haven’t been able to run because of the pandemic. You know it’s been pretty hard, but I’ve been preparing myself by working out even harder than before.” 

Nuñez says sports are important to her and she’s happy to have them back.

“Sports have definitely helped me mentally and both physically,” she said. “I could definitely see the difference when I’m in the sport and when I’m not and like now when things are starting up everything’s like opening up again little by little so it’s like been bettering for myself and everyone else.”

This show was produced by the following team:

• I’Yonna Applon Kettles
• Abtin Mashadi
• Malik Patterson
• Cynthia Puga
• Jahaiara Quazi

The growing trend of parents redshirting their children prior to high school athletic competition leaves youth sports torn between ethical values and winning.  

The phenomenon, traditionally used by athletes competing in the NCAA, is now shifting towards kids as early as kindergarten.  This parent–initiated process is a way for a child to gain physical advantages compared to his or her peers, as well as attract the attention of college coaches and recruiters.    

Most organizations and sports programs do not see the practice as enough of a threat to enforce regulations against it. Yet other entities, such as the New Jersey state legislature, are pushing to end redshirting.

“Right now, it’s not [considered] cheating,” New Jersey State Senator Richard Codey (D-Essex) said, “but we know it is. It’s trying to game the system.”  

Despite several gray areas in the bill, many do believe parents should take into consideration all the ramifications of such actions.

“We really need to think about kids’ rights to an open future,” CSUN Kinesiology Professor Doug McLaughlin said. “Some people in our society value sports too much, which causes people to do things that are problematic.” McLaughlin said if parents decide to redshirt their children for sports, they have only a 50-50 chance at best of seeing success after high school.

A Notre Dame University study found that kids who repeat a year of school between kindergarten and sixth grade, are 60 percent less likely to finish high school.

“It’s tough enough to be a teenage boy and have your parents tell you you’re not good enough so we are going to hold you back,” said President of William S. Hart Baseball, Michael Eberle. “The kids are [the] victims at stake.  I’m just not sure that is a positive message.”

Former college football player and current high school football coach Trajuan Briggs said his perspective on the trend has changed through the years.

“As a player on the high school level, I thought it was a bit unfair.  Since this kid is now in my recruiting class, what if he gets the scholarship I was suppose to get?” Briggs said.  “Once I got to college, my outlook on those types of players changed.  It didn’t bother me at all.  I knew I was going to have to compete with 23-year-old juniors as a freshman and rely on my skills.”

As a coach, Briggs has seen the trend occur several times.  

“It goes back to Pop Warner, where kids are being held back by the parents,” Briggs said. “And believe it or not, a lot of high school coaches look for that.  They feel like it is an on field advantage.” 

Moderator: Harry Bennett III

Anchor: Ayo Adelaja

Producer: Haley Kramer

Social Media Editors: Valerie Hernandez and Sofia Levin

Reporters: Harry Bennett III, Jarvis Haren, Valerie Hernandez, Haley Kramer, Sofia Levin and Mariah Robinson