CIF Announces Plans for 2020-2021 High School Sports

The girls volleyball team plays a match during the 2019-2020 season. Staff photo: Sadie Stinson.

Carly McAdam, Editor in Chief

The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has released the calendar for high school sports during the 2020-2021 school year, which has been modified due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to the state media release, all section playoffs and regional or state championships have been pushed back until at least March 13, 2021. The new CIF schedule, however, only specifies a last date that section playoffs can occur and a last date that regional or state championships can occur. 

Each section of CIF will be in charge of deciding the start and end dates for their individual section, in addition to the date that section playoffs will occur, in accordance with county guidelines. The Central Coast Section (CCS), which includes Menlo, has yet to release their new season start and end dates. 

CIF anticipates that most section start dates will not be before December 2020. Sports are expected to continue well into the summer, as the last regional or state championship cutoff (which includes baseball, softball and track and field) is not until June 26, 2021. 

Due to the unprecedented circumstances, CIF has temporarily suspended three rules that are normally in place for all high school sports. 

The first is that CIF sections may extend their summer period until the first season start date in December 2020. This means that teams may hold official practices and conditioning in the fall, as long as they are approved by the school. 

The second relates to the start and end dates of each season. Normally, CIF determines the start and end dates for all sports seasons. However, next year, each section will decide the start and end dates for each sport. 

Finally, because sports next year will not be at the same time of year that they normally are, CIF is suspending the rule that high school athletes cannot simultaneously participate on a club team while they participate on their high school team.