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Palo Alto coach Danny Dye celebrates with the team after they won the girls division at the 2017 Central Coast Section Swimming and Diving Championships finals at the Santa Clara International Swim Center in Santa Clara, Calif., on Saturday, May 13, 2017. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)
Palo Alto coach Danny Dye celebrates with the team after they won the girls division at the 2017 Central Coast Section Swimming and Diving Championships finals at the Santa Clara International Swim Center in Santa Clara, Calif., on Saturday, May 13, 2017. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)
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The Santa Clara Valley Athletic League was ahead of nearly all its peers when it announced plans to go with a three-season model and disqualify itself from section or state playoffs.

The league remains an outlier in a number of ways: Many others have opted to follow the model put forth by the state’s governing body in hopes of a postseason down the line. It is also a rare league whose schools span only one county. Complicating things, though, that county is Santa Clara, which has implemented some of the toughest coronavirus restrictions in the nation.

In a bold move, the SCVAL moved up only sports in the purple tier to compete in the first of three six-week seasons, with practices getting under way this week and competition the week after next. While it gets the most kids playing in the least amount of time, it also removes the possibility of them competing in postseason play because the league falls out of line with the two-season calendar set by the California Interscholastic Federation and its Central Coast Section, prompting frustration from some parents and coaches.

Brad Metheany, the commissioner of the 14-team league, is prepared to defend its decisions. Ultimately, it came down to fairness, he said.

“Will it look exactly the same as any other spring sports season? No, it’s not. We only have so many days,” Metheany said this week over the phone. “I can only comment to the fact that those conversations occurred constantly in my discussions with my ADs and my Board of Managers. They were very cognizant of the fact that we can’t lose track of the spring sports and what they went through and what they lost. …

“Also, just out of fairness to all sports. If one sport’s gonna go (to the postseason) and one sport’s not gonna go, well then how come they get to go and we don’t get to go? … Those two things are probably why we (decided) … let’s treat them the same.”

Last spring, student-athletes had their seasons cut short by the initial coronavirus shutdowns. A year later, they face a shortened season with no chance for the postseason.

Danny Dye, the longtime swim coach at Palo Alto High School, said taking away the possibility of the postseason this time was “even worse” than when it happened last year.

“I can understand last year with the shutdown and taking care of the state and all across the board what happened,” Dye said. “I feel horrible for my entire team, but mostly I feel horrible for the seniors because for the second year in a row they will have any opportunity to compete at CCS taken away from them.”

Metheany said the league’s Board of Managers raised the possibility of Title IX issues if a sport with one gender is allowed to play in the postseason but not the other. Additionally, there’s no guarantee the CCS or CIF will hold playoffs for Season 2 at all — there is already no section or state postseason for Season 1 sports. Pulling out now allows to plan for another week of league play, Metheany said.

“Ultimately, there are some sports in Season 2 where I don’t think they can even garner a locale to put all the teams in the CCS in one site,” Metheany said. “Or all the school members in the CCS can cross county lines and be involved in some final playoff tournament? … We’ll see what CIF and CCS does on its playoffs in Season 2, but they were just worried about that element. And then … leaving a week for CCS would have made for less league competition.”

Some parents have pushed for traditional spring sports to be allowed a longer season with the chance at postseason play.

Metheany said the response has been vocal but with “lots of positive” feedback, in addition to “lots of negative.”

“But the negatives revolve around not being able to do playoffs. They don’t revolve around us protecting all sports,” he said. “I don’t get a vote, but I sit at the meetings. Is it the best? No, it’s not the best, but it’s probably what we needed to do. … There’s an element of this, where it’s hard for a school or an athlete to see past themselves, and I understand that. I have to field those questions and hear that disappointment.”

If it were to come down to it, Metheany said the SCVAL is prepared to make a “last-ditch effort” to save the spring sports, which already lost last season.

“All my schools are in Santa Clara County, so who knows,” he joked.

Ultimately, the sentiment among the kids who are getting their first chance to compete in nearly a year has been one of excitement. Refreshingly, Metheany said, nobody is talking about winning state or dominating their district. If distance makes the heart grow fonder, then maybe time away returns it to a purer form.

“There’s just a joy of competing and having fun after spending 10 months in your bedroom,” Metheany said. “That’s really, really refreshing, I think.”

Q&A with SCVAL commissioner Brad Metheany

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Evan Webeck: I wanted to check in with you and see what the response has been after you announced a three-season model, which seems to be a bit of an outlier.

Brad Metheany: Some people have stuck with the two-season model, and yet they’ve adjusted it. They’ve moved teams around, like swimming is a good example. A couple have moved swimming to Season 1 (in place of water polo, an orange-tier sport), or they’ve adjusted their start dates. So if they tell you they’re Season 1 and Season 2, many of them are not mirroring the CIF and CCS format. … So let me go through the process, so you know what we did. Our athletic directors were meeting indirectly and said look, we need to look at possibly going to a truncated three sports season to try to save all of our sports. I said, if you guys feel this way, you need to form an ad hoc committee to take a look at it and come up with a proposal that you can bring to all the ADs. So they voted to form an ad hoc committee to look at it. The ad hoc committee consisted of — I have six districts in my 14 schools in my league — so we made sure we had a representative from every district in there. And they met and they came up with our proposal, then informally, it went back to the ADs, and they approved it. And then it went to an emergency meeting of the Board of Managers … they met and they wanted some things adjusted, like they wanted cancellation dates in there.

They wanted the ability to try to, if we have to at the end, protect our spring sports. So both those things got worked out. It went back to the ADs … We had our formal athletic director meeting, and they formally approved it. A week later, our normal SCVAL meeting, the Board of Managers in one of their agenda items voted to approve it officially. So it went through a whole process for us to get to this. It wasn’t something we did really fast. We’re really concerned in our league that we’re fair to both of our genders as much as we can, so we kind of got stuck on the matter of Season 1 — that was a question the Board of Managers had — if we had girls’ golf in one area and they didn’t have a playoff, and then the boys came along and they had a playoff, we might have some Title IX issues, so they were very conscious of that. So both groups (said), ‘We’re just not going to be involved in playoffs anyway. We’re gonna jump the gun here.’ We’ll see what CIF and CCS does on its playoffs in Season 2, but they were just worried about that element. And then we had some small areas, three truncated seasons, leaving a week for CCS would have made for less league competition.

EW: It seems like everyone is approaching this with the best intentions but sometimes coming to different conclusions about how to proceed. What do you tell people who feel like they’re being short-changed with no opportunity for playoffs? Or spring sports athletes who had their seasons canceled last year and get shortened ones this year?

BM: Well, I can only comment to the fact that those conversations occurred constantly in my discussions with my ADs and my Board of Managers. They were very cognizant of the fact that we can’t lose track of the spring sports and what they went through and what they lost. To say we didn’t focus on them, that’s not true. In fact, we probably had more discussions about that. In fact, if it all breaks down and we start spiking again and it’s put on hold, so on and so forth, would my Board of Managers adjust again? They might. We talked about our last-ditch effort to save anything will be to save those spring sports the best we can and let the rest of them sort of go, I’m sorry. … I’m also very lucky that all my schools are in one county, so I don’t have that factor, but all my schools are in Santa Clara County. [laughs] So, you never know. And they sort of showed their hand over what transpired over a three-day period (last week). If something were to happen, there’s no question in my mind, all the conversations with ADs in my league and my board, they would try one, last-ditch effort to save them because they’ve already lost (last season). That complaint is something I’m pretty comfortable with because it has been a focus. Will it look exactly the same as any other spring sports season? No, it’s not. We only have so many days. But if something were to happen, we’d probably take one more stab at it.

EW: Were there additional considerations in voluntarily removing yourself from section and state playoffs beyond Title IX issues?

BM: That’s half of it. Also, just out of fairness to all sports. If one sport’s gonna go (to the postseason) and one sport’s not gonna go, well then how come they get to go and we don’t get to go? Ultimately, there are some sports in Season 2 where I don’t think they can even garner a locale to put all the teams in the CCS in one site. Or all the school members in the CCS can cross county lines and be involved in some final playoff tournament? So those things are all sort of out there anyway, and you might face some of those things. Those two things are probably why we (decided) … let’s treat them the same, let’s not open up any Title IX issues … and giving us some time on our schedules to have as many contests as we can locally. Don’t forget when you get into the playoffs, you’ve got some distances that you’ve got to go. I don’t get a vote, but I sit at the meetings. Is it the best? No, it’s not the best, but it’s probably what we needed to do. … There’s an element of this, where it’s hard for a school or an athlete to see past themselves, and I understand that. I have to field those questions and hear that disappointment.

EW: What kind of feedback, positive or negative, have you received from members schools and parents?

BM: Lots of positive [pause] and lots of negative. But the negatives revolve around not being able to do playoffs. They don’t revolve around us protecting all sports, that’s not been an issue. … It’s hard for people to have change, I understand that. As an ex-administrator in a school district, I understand disappointment. And it’s OK. … The feeling is there’s a little bit of excitement with the kids, and that’s what we’re trying to do anyway, so that’s cool.

EW: You get more of a sense of excitement about being back out competing than —

BM: Yeah, yeah.

EW: — than disappointment about being able to have playoffs or anything like that?

BM: Yeah, it really is sort of refreshing that we’re just excited about playing some games. There’s no talk of ‘we’re gonna win state’ or ‘we’re gonna win CCS.’ That’s really refreshing if you think about it. There’s just a joy of competing and having fun after spending 10 months in your bedroom. That’s really, really refreshing, I think.

EW: Going back to those three days of chaos in Santa Clara County that you mentioned, what was that like for you and what was your reaction?

BM: [laughs] I’ve told this story many times. I was on a Zoom call with my cross country coaches. Very cooperative group of coaches, they work together very well. It’s a group I like to sit in on. We’re talking and they’re under the standing of ‘OK, we’ve got to stay 25 feet apart’ and they’re trying to figure out how to make this work. They’re going, and it’s about 6 o’clock, they say, ‘OK, we’re gonna have super-sites on Saturday, and this school’s gonna come from 8-9:30 and they’re gonna run, then everybody’s gonna leave. And then another school’s gonna come at 10 o’clock and they’re gonna run the course, then they’re gonna leave. And they have this all figured out, with brackets and who will go where, they had worked it out, and all of a sudden, my phone blows up. I get all these texts and these emails from people saying the county has just reversed, and I have to tell (the cross country coaches), ‘Stop! You don’t have to do this!’ So they had to turn back and decide what do we want to do and do we want to have super sites with two teams? In a matter of seconds, we went from, again, trying to make it work for young people — be damned the county, we’re gonna run — and then [laughs] they change. But they didn’t go, oh we put all this work in; no, they just changed. Coaches are there for kids to try to give them an opportunity to have some fun. Until that moment, there were a lot of people frustrated. It went from being angry to frustrated to ‘OK, we’re not having sports,’ over probably a 36-hour period. That’s hard when you care so much about the importance of athletics in a young person’s life. It was bizarre.


Bay Area News Group’s Darren Sabedra contributed to this report