California schools will not begin basketball season until at least March 2021
By JACOB POLACHECK
The California Interscholastic Federation announced Monday that the high school basketball season will not begin until at least March 2021.
California high school sports will not be played until the winter and all three seasons of high school sports in California will be moved to later in the 2020-2021 school year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I thought that was a great thing, especially since kids missed their spring sports,” San Ysidro (CA) Boys Basketball head coach Terance Tucker said in a phone interview Monday. “
San Ysidro is headlined by point guard Mikey Williams, who is ranked by ESPN.com as the No. 3 overall prospect in the Class of 2023.
They are also expected to return Class of 2023 small forward Jurian Dixon and bring in Fort Bend Hightower (TX) transfer Bryce Griggs.
Griggs is ranked by ESPN.com as the No. 7 point guard and No. 29 overall prospect in the Class of 2022.
With the news, basketball will be transitioned into the spring season. The CIF playoffs will end on June 19, one week after the completion of the section playoffs.
“For basketball, it’s kind of weird knowing that you’re not going to start high school basketball season for nine more months,” Tucker said. “Having said that, California is a huge state, a huge state.
“In terms of the most talked about high school athletes, we’ve got two of the top four in our state when you start talking about LeBron James Jr. (Sierra Canyon) and Mikey Williams,” Tucker said.
California joins New Mexico as the second state thus far to postpone high school sports until 2021.
Students will be allowed to participate on teams outside of school-sanctioned teams (AAU, club ball, etc.)
“For us as basketball coaches, I don’t think it really changes anything,” Tucker said. “I think there are still going to be events. There are still going to be games played. There will still be kids playing in games.
“I just think for the next nine months, those games are going to be not labeled ‘high school basketball.”
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