After Initial Cancellation, CIF-San Diego Championships Back On

After initially announcing the cancellation of the meet due to ongoing Covid-19 measures, the San Diego Section of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has announced that they will be holding their Section Championships on Friday and Saturday, April 23rd and 24th. Following multiple weeks of collaboration between the CIF and the San Diego Health Department, the meet proposal was approved.

In the initial announcement of the meet’s cancellation, commissioner Joe Heinz said:

“The CIF San Diego Section has made the difficult decision to cancel the Swim & Dive Championships previously scheduled for Saturday, April 24th. We have been holding out hope that the state’s guidance would be adjusted to accommodate larger scaled competitions, yet based upon all the information available to us at this time we do not see any adjustments being made that would enable us to host a section-wide Championship event. We will adjust our 2020-2021, Master Calendar to show April 24th as the last possible date for competitions. We would also like to thank our Swim & Dive, student-athletes, coaches, Conference Presidents, Schedulers, and Officials Associations who worked with us in an extremely tight time span to adjust their schedules and seasons to provide this opportunity for student-athletes throughout our section.”

The announcement of the meet’s return comes just over a week after the California Department of Public Health loosened it’s guidelines for youth sports across the state. As of April 6th, teams are allowed to compete in competitions across the state, expanding competition from the previously allowed neighboring counties guidelines. The state will also allow spectators to attend outdoor events, ranging from 20% to 67% of capacity depending on the region in which the competition is held.

Greg Spire, the head coach of Canyon Crest Academy, who was active in organizing coaches to discuss option following the meet’s cancellation said he appreciated CIF San Diego Section and the County of San Diego were able to work together to provide an opportunity for the high school student-athletes.