Big West postpones fall sports due to coronavirus

By Andrew TurnerStaff Writer

Aug. 20, 2020 8 PM PT

High school sports in the new school year in California have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and increasingly, that is becoming the case at the college level.

The Big West Conference announced on July 29 that it would postpone fall sports through the end of the calendar year. At UC Irvine, the affected fall sports would be men’s and women’s cross-country, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.

The Golden Coast Conference, in which the UC Irvine men’s water polo program competes, also postponed its men’s water polo season until at least January in an announcement made on July 31.

“I think if you asked me that back in March [if] we would be [postponing] the fall season, I think I would have been quite surprised, but as things progressed, it became quite clear that having fall sports is going to present lots of challenges,” UC Irvine women’s soccer coach Scott Juniper said. “I think by the time the decision came around, we were quite honestly very prepared for that decision and expected it, and I think you saw the dominoes kind of across the country, other conferences started to come to the same conclusion.

“Obviously disappointed, but completely understand why we’re in the situation we are, and just have to guide our student-athletes through the chaos.”

As more conferences opted not to start fall sports on time, the NCAA also decided not to hold championships in the fall. The decision came on Aug. 13.

“We cannot now, at this point, have fall NCAA championships, because there’s not enough schools participating,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in video posted on Twitter. “The board of governors also said, ‘Look, if you don’t have half of the schools playing a sport, you can’t have a legitimate championship.’”

The door has been left open for fall championships to take place in the winter or the spring, although what those championships may look like is still uncertain.

“The size of those championships, in terms of the number of teams participating, is very likely to be reduced, so there’s a big conversation on how you select those teams,” Juniper said.

The Big West and other mid-major athletic conferences that have had an automatic qualifier spot through a conference championship would be hopeful to retain it.

Attempting to integrate new players into a program has also become a challenge during the pandemic.

Desiree Mendoza, an incoming freshman for the UCI women’s soccer program who starred at Estancia High School, said she felt fortunate that a teammate reached out to get her involved.

“It’s only five of us to keep it minimal because of this whole coronavirus thing,” Mendoza said. “We meet every day of the week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we do conditioning, and Tuesday, Thursday, we get to touch the ball around.”

As has been the case for many, Mendoza has gained an appreciation for what she had in her sport after it was taken away.

“I’m definitely going to be able to appreciate and take advantage of the games more, now that I’ve gotten a taste of not being able to play for … the longest that I haven’t been able to play,” she said.

The Orange County Health Care Agency reported 23 deaths due to the virus and 429 new cases in its latest numbers released on Thursday.

In total, the county has dealt with 856 coronavirus deaths while also seeing a cumulative case count of 44,936. On Wednesday, the county reported the first death of a child in the county due to the virus. A release by the county health department said the teenage girl had underlying medical conditions.

Currently, the county has 400 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, with 118 of those patients in intensive care units.

There were 6,545 more tests performed within the last day, bringing the number of tests administered during the pandemic to 571,931. An estimated 36,596 recoveries have been made from a bout with COVID-19.

Here are the latest cumulative coronavirus case counts and COVID-19 deaths for select cities: