Out of bounds

Contact sports in doubt this fall with coronavirus raging



GOLDEN BOY—Calabasas High football quarterback Jaden Casey, left, gets pushed out of bounds by Westlake on Oct. 4, 2019. Casey is an incoming freshman for the University of California Golden Bears. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

GOLDEN BOY—Calabasas High football quarterback Jaden Casey, left, gets pushed out of bounds by Westlake on Oct. 4, 2019. Casey is an incoming freshman for the University of California Golden Bears. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

We didn’t listen.

All we had to do was continue to wear masks, wash our hands with warm water and soap, and maintain social distances in public.

But we didn’t listen.

Welcome to the second wave of the coronavirus, or technically the second surge of the first wave of the coronavirus.

This infectious disease didn’t take a vacation while cacafuegos frolicked at Zuma Beach and snapped selfies.

Nobody’s begging for another shutdown—the first one was bungled worse than a featherheaded scheme of Wile E. Coyote’s.

How about we all use common sense? How about we be considerate of other people?

Follow the Road Runner’s example: Avoid maniacal coyotes armed with unhealthy doses of TNT and cross the road.

The mask isn’t to protect you, it’s to protect people around you.

C’mon, folks.

Now we’re probably not going to (gasp!) have high school contact sports in the fall.

That means (gulp!) no high school football in 2020.

Follow sports editor Eliav Appelbaum on Twitter @EliavAppelbaum.

Follow sports editor Eliav Appelbaum on Twitter @EliavAppelbaum.

I predict that there will be no prep football games in Acorn country this calendar year.

Girls’ and boys’ cross country, girls’ golf and girls’ singles tennis carry on. It’s another story for football, girls’ volleyball and boys’ water polo.

As long as second, third and fourth waves of this disease surge, there is no way high school contact sports will resume unabated.

The NBA, NFL, WNBA and Major League Baseball are all diving, blindfolds firmly tightened, into the shark tank. They might get lucky and splash around with Snowflake from “Ace Ventura” . . . or they’ll fight for their sanity in a cesspool of goblin sharks gnawing on Rob Manfred’s gizzard and relive the nightmare until the end of time.

Professional sports teams are businesses. They will do what’s best for their bottom line.

High school sports operate by a different set of rules.

A school’s No. 1 job isn’t to educate, it’s to keep kids safe. Parents send their children to schools to learn, of course, but if schools don’t prioritize the safety of children, then everything else on campus would fall apart.

Here’s a potential scenario.

Thousand Oaks High’s football team is scheduled to open the season Aug. 21 at Carson, a school outside the county. During the week, a handful of Carson players catch the coronavirus. and the entire team goes into self-quarantine—Thousand Oaks doesn’t have an opponent.

Another week goes by, but this time a handful of T.O. kids get sick. Now, the Lancers will miss at least the next two or three games because everyone was exposed.

The cycle repeats—infection, quarantine, cancellation—over and over again. The season is over before the opening kickoff.

Football players don’t live or play in a bubble. They share homes with siblings, parents, grandparents and guardians, some of whom have weak immune systems.

What if players have underlying health issues that they don’t know about? What public school wants to take that risk?

This isn’t the Thunderdome, last time I checked.

Sierra Canyon High, a private outfit in Chatsworth, invited the press to football practice last week.

Calabasas varsity and junior varsity football teams announced their first practice for Mon., June 29.

Socially distanced practices are possible, but games are a different can of Uncle Fester’s Malevolent Millipedes.

If fans get lucky, they’ll enjoy football in January or February of next year.

This isn’t just a nasty flu. This isn’t a bad cold.

The coronavirus has killed more than 120,000 people in the U.S.

Infections, hospitalizations and deaths are rising in Ventura County, right here in our backyard.

Novak Djokovic, one of the best tennis players in the world, tested positive for the coronavirus. Von Miller of the Denver Broncos had it. Kevin Durant got it. Hundreds of college athletes still have it.

The coronavirus, as discussed earlier in this column, will not go on vacation and book a one-way ticket to the dark side of the moon.

Maybe I’m wrong.

Most days, I’m a blind rooster in a wheat field, a snot otter scavenging for souls in a soul desert.

There’s a chance I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong. You can write letters and tell me I’m wrong.

But the coronavirus is beating sports right now, and the score isn’t close.