SPHS Sports Update | Athletic Director Chan Gives Hope of Teams Competing Again

Most sports teams are back on campus training and conditioning but up to now no competitions have been held due to the coronavirus

FILE PHOTO: Eric Fabbro | SouthPasadenan.com News | SPHS Tigers Baseball

It’s a call for action, as Anthony Chan urges all athletes to continue conditioning and training in hopes that athletic seasons will someday return to the South Pasadena High campus.

The school’s athletic director looks to the day when coronavirus cases ease enough where student-athletes can compete again. Safety is foremost, stressed Chan, as workouts are conducted with the support of individual pods to avoid contact.

One sport in particular is receiving signs of getting the green light to launch competitive play while most wait out their turn. “As for playing, we’re still in discussions with the Rio Hondo League on trying to have a cross-country meet, where we may even run a dual meet-two teams,” explained Chan. “At the moment though, we are looking to do time trial competitions but are still hopeful that we may be able to do something in-person.”

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Joining cross-country, other teams currently conditioning in pods at the school include: baseball, softball, football, badminton, boys and girls volleyball, water polo, tennis, basketball, golf, swimming, wrestling, and track and field.

“I am excited to have almost every single athletic program back on campus,” Anthony said. “Although we are still outside only, the kids are getting fresh air while wearing facial coverings and maintaining social distance. I am hopeful that we may be able to compete for some ‘Purple Tier’ Sports as soon as possible. I wish we were able to have all of our teams competing, but we will need to adhere to current regulations.”

California is on a four-tier color-coded classification system to determine which counties can reopen safely. The four tiers are yellow, orange, red and purple. Purple means there is widespread COVID-19 transmission in the county.

The SPHS athletic director stressed that he and the school’s coaches “have been communicating well about our chances of being able to play and looking at the tier system,” he said. “We’ve mostly been trying to organize all of our programs to have adequate pods and proper athletic clearance.”

Last summer as the pandemic raged on, Chan remained hopeful teams would compete , socially-distanced, by the Fall. “However, things continued to trend for the worse and we’re hoping to get some matches in for this school year if possible,” he said. “It does bring a great deal of pride that we are able to offer training and conditioning for all of our student-athletes to safely get some exercise with their teammates at this time.”

Yet, teams anxious to compete must wait for another day, week or even months. Chan hopes the latter won’t be the case.

“No teams have competed yet,” he said, “but we are hoping we can have cross county and JV tennis compete soon.”