Coronavirus concerns sweep into Sacramento sports as Sheldon takes aim at state title
The coronavirus concern has swept through the regional high school sporing scene beyond Sheldon’s stop-and-go basketball playoff march.
Sheldon on Tuesday was cleared by the Elk Grove Unified School District to resume its season after it was withdrawn from the CIF Northern California Open Division field on Saturday by the district, due to the fear of the spreading the virus. Sheldon on Wednesday evening received word from the EGUSD that it could play Thursday in the NorCal Open finals against Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland.
That game was originally set for Laney College in Oakland but was scrapped Wednesday afternoon by the Bishop O’Dowd and the Oakland Diocese when Alameda County announced that there will not be any gatherings of 1,000 more people in the region. It will now be played at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, the original venue as Sheldon is the top seed.
The CIF — the governing body for high school sports — said in a statement Sheldon and O’Dowd have been allotted an equal number of tickets via a link on the CIF website. No tickets will be sold at CRC.
Meanwhile, prep games throughout the Sac-Joaquin Section were canceled Wednesday, including Turlock baseball playing at Folsom. The junior varsity game between the schools, scheduled to be played at Turlock, was also canceled.
In a statement to parents, Turlock Unified School District Chief Communication Coordinator Marie Russell said, “We canceled the baseball games in Folsom (Sacramento County) today based on the guidelines from the California Department of Public Health. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
“(Our team) got a text about it at 12:50 today,” Folsom pitcher Brady Huddlestun told The Bee.
The Folsom junior varsity team was about to depart to Turlock when coaches received a text that the game was canceled.
“Our JV and freshman team were about to load up on the bus when (Turlock varsity coach) Sean Gilbert called me bummed and said the games were off,” Folsom varsity coach Aaron Agnew said. “The Turlock District shut the game down and said there would be no out of district games allowed.
“Our JV guys were waiting on the bus waiting to go,” he added. “They are bummed about it.”
Folsom scheduled Turlock beefed to beef up its preseason schedule. There’s no official word if the teams will reschedule.
The Granite Bay Invitational track and field event scheduled for Saturday was also canceled.
Said Sac-Joaquin Section assistant commissioner Will DeBoard, “The vast majority of our schools are in their spring regular season, and we strongly encourage them to keep in touch with their local health authorities with regards on how to proceed. It’s a matter of local control for us. At this point, we’re all in ‘wait and see’ mode, but I think we’re probably going see more postponements as more people become infected.”
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Coronavirus concerns sweep into Sacramento sports as Sheldon takes aim at state title."