Here’s what will happen with high school leagues next year. Also, some practice resumes
Like a presidential election cycle, every four years some high school coaches, fans, and players are happy and some are sad when the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section releases its realignment of schools to different leagues.
At the last realignment cycle, Beyer, Davis, and Johansen left the Modesto Metro Conference and joined the Western Athletic Conference for the 2018-19 school year while Downey, Enochs, Gregori, and Modesto joined the Central California Athletic League.
In a Board of Managers meeting on Sept. 25 held virtually, a vote was held to delay realignment for two years. The proposal passed 52-2 with three absentees.
Realignment talks were scheduled to begin in January but due to several factors including not being able to hold large meetings in-person, realignment will now happen in the 2024-25 school year instead of 2022-23.
The section has another Board of Managers meeting on Oct. 6 and will vote on two proposals for the upcoming athletics season.
A proposal for baseball will change the playoff structure from a double-elimination tournament to single-elimination with a “best-of-three” format for semifinals and a single championship game.
For football, the section will vote on a one-year waiver which will move the playoff divisions from seven to nine and each bracket will have eight teams instead of 12.
If it passes, all nine division champions will be eligible for regional/state playoffs, according to Assistant Commissioner Will DeBoard.
Local athletics conditioning resume for some: With three months until the scheduled start of the 2020-21 CIF athletics sports season, some area districts have given the green light for athletics conditioning to resume.
Ceres and Central Valley High Schools resumed conditioning workouts last week according to the Ceres Courier and Turlock Unified School District is allowing “fall” sports to begin workouts.
Modesto City Schools will allow workouts next week.
Stanislaus County suspended all athletics in mid-July.
The CIF season officially begins in the Sac-Joaquin Section on Dec. 28.
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 1:31 PM.
