While leagues, schools, districts, sections and the state continue to work on contingency plans for the beginning of the 2020-21 high school sports season, coaches and administrators in the San Mateo Union High School District are starting to gear up for … well … I guess “activity” would be the best way to put it.
Beginning Monday, June 8, SMUHSD student-athletes can, once again, get back out on the field and start running around with their teammates and coaches.
Hey, it’s a start.
“I’m really excited,” said San Mateo athletic director and football coach Jeff Scheller, who is also the chairman for the district’s committee bring high school sports back online.
“I think (as) coaches, we love coaching. The grind is part of that process. … It’s just a matter of getting the kids out there and moving. … It’s about seeing the kids. Doing Zoom meetings is just not the same.”
Scheller said a letter will go out this week to the parents of student-athletes, outlining the plan and safety protocol that will be used and while the activity is more based on overall conditioning, as opposed to actual sports-specific practice, the main goal is just to get the players used to working with a team and a coach again.
“You’re constantly competing with each other (during workouts),” Scheller said. “At home, it’s really tough (to get the same level of workout).”
SMUHSD, which is the biggest district in the Peninsula Athletic League with six schools, will be the first district. The Sequoia Union High School District — the second-largest district with Carlmont, Menlo-Atherton, Sequoia and Woodside — will most likely follow soon after, which should encourage the other districts to follow suit.
All assuming SMUHSD opening goes smoothly and according to plan.
“If we screw this up, [districts and parents are] not going to have much faith in us,” said Steve Sell, Aragon football coach and AD. “We have to work the kinks out now.”
In addition to coming up with — and maintaining — safety protocol, athletic directors and also schedule makers as the plan is not limited to just athletes for the fall season. Any and all sports are welcome, so ADs are having to schedule field times for the various coaches.
“Just getting out there, seeing one another (is important),” said John Philipopoulos, Burlingame football coach and AD. “The kids want it, the coaches want it. We’re going to take advantage of every chance we get.”
As it stand now, the plan is 45-minute workout sessions, followed by a 15-minute transition period during which one group is leaving and the next group is coming in for their workout. Workout groups will be limited to up to 12 players and one coach and those groups will stay the same for three weeks. The original plan was four weeks, but Scheller said last week that was dropped to three.
Regardless if you call it workouts or conditioning or practice, the bottom line is this: any kind of activity is better than nothing. While workouts in June will have no bearing on what happens in the fall, it is an opportunity to show that participation in sports can be done, safely. You have to start somewhere and this is the first step toward what, hopefully, is a normal 2020-21 season.
But as Sell cautioned: “This is not business as usual.”
Added Philipopoulos: “What makes it the most complicated is, we don’t know. We don’t have the answers. I can’t call another AD and say, ‘What do you know about this?’ We’re all in the same boat with a lot of unknowns and uncertainty. It’s tough and everybody wants answers.”
Over the years, the Peninsula has had its fair share of highly recruited athletes.
But none over the last generation have been as highly sought-after as rising Menlo-Atherton senior Troy Franklin, who is one of biggest high school wide receiver recruits in the country. Already holding 24 offers, many from the biggest-named schools you can imagine, Franklin last week whittled his list down to his top four schools: Alabama, Arizona State, Oregon and Washington.
Recruiting site Rivals ranks Franklin as the second-best prospect in the state, the fifth-best in the country at his position and ranked 24th in nation at all positions.
M-A wide receiver Troy Franklin, a rising senior, is one of the most sought-after college recruits in the nation.
Franklin already has three varsity seasons under his belt, making the team as a freshman. In three seasons, he has 102 catches for 1,790 yards and 28 touchdowns. He has also rushed for 238 yards and two more scores, and has 524 return yardage (kickoffs, punts and interceptions) with two more TDs.
247Sports, another recruiting website, is equally effusive in its ranking of Franklin, with 247Sports national recruiting editor Brandon Huffman saying on the website: “Projects as an immediate Power Five (conference) starter and future (NFL) first- or second-round draft pick.”
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June 02, 2020 at 06:45PM
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