Metro Conference football will have a decidedly different look for the 2020 season through the re-leaguing of teams and the addition of five new head coaches.
The conference has streamlined itself into two leagues for the upcoming season: the Metro-Mesa League and the Metro-South Bay League.
Conference membership remains at 13 schools, including 12 schools from the Sweetwater Union High School District.
The realigned Mesa League includes six schools: Bonita Vista, Eastlake, Hilltop, Mater Dei Catholic, Olympian and Otay Ranch high schools. Teams will play five league games.
Eastlake is the two-time defending league champion. Hilltop joins the league after winning three consecutive South Bay League titles.
The realigned Metro-South Bay League includes seven schools: Castle Park, Chula Vista, Mar Vista, Montgomery, San Ysidro, Southwest and Sweetwater high schools. Teams will play six league games.
Montgomery won last year’s Metro-Pacific League championship while Castle Park advanced to the Division V championship game, placing runner-up to Francis Parker by a score of 24-21.
The 2020 season is scheduled to kick off Aug. 14 with scrimmage games and the regular season on Aug. 21.
However, due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic those dates could be in flux.
The State CIF Office will conduct a conference call on Monday, July 20, to receive input from all 10 section commissioners and balance that against up-to-date health guidelines and protocols to chart a course ahead.
Incoming San Diego Section commissioner Joe Heinz, a 1988 Chula Vista High School graduate and former San Diego State University Aztec, said there are several calendars in the works to choose from that best match the situation and needs.
There are plans to start fall sports at different times depending on contact/non-contact status or even delay the start of the entire fall calendar.
Football teams could find themselves kicking off their respective schedules in mid-September.
Oct. 1 has even been mentioned as a possible late starting date. Community colleges have already moved football schedules to the spring semester, with practices starting in mid January and games starting in early February.
Will the preps follow the JC lead?
The exact timeline remains to be determined.
The Sweetwater district announced it would start the fall semester with online classes beginning Aug. 3.
On Monday, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the San Diego Unified School District both announced they would start the fall semester with online-only classes.
Those two school districts are among the largest public school systems in terms of student population in the nation.
The L.A. city school district, which has a budget of $7.59 billion, is the largest in California and the second largest in the country after New York City Department of Education.
The San Diego school district is the second largest public school system in the state and the largest in San Diego County.
The Sweetwater district is the largest secondary school district in the state.
The Los Angeles district has scheduled an Aug. 18 start to the 2020-21 school term while the San Diego distict has scheduled an Aug. 31 start.
All three districts have said a schedule for return to in-person learning will be based on input from local health officials.
Heinz told the media it would be possible for student-athletes to practice and play games with online classes if cleared by state health officials to do so.
More will be known next week.
Catch-up
Regardless of the date chosen to start the 2020 season, Metro Conference teams will have to play catch-up as East County football squads have already started summer workouts.
Sweetwater district teams are currently not allowed to use on-campus or even off-campus venues to conduct workouts.
“At this time we must suspend any team activities until the CIF makes a ruling on the football season on July 20,” Eastlake head coach Jason Texler announced via social media.
Texler is one of five new head coaches in the district this season.
Bryan Wagner moves from Sweetwater to Hilltop, his alma mater, while Ervin Hernandez takes over at Sweetwater to complete that transition.
Bonita Vista athletic director Tyler Arciaga assumes the head coaching position there after serving as athletic director and head football coach at Mar Vista High School from 2013-19.
Arciaga won one league title in seven years with the Mariners while recording two runner-up finishes.
Curtis Mays fills the void at Mar Vista.
Texler, who works on the Eastlake campus, succeeds John McFadden, who compiled a career-defining 135-50-4 record in 16 seasons at the east side Chula Vista school. Texler served as an assistant under McFadden last season.
The Titans ended the season under interim coach Paco Silva.
Texler led El Cajon Valley to a runner-up finish in the 2005 Division II championship game. He’s also served as a head coach at Escondido and San Marcos high schools in North County.
There were actually six coaching changes during the offseason.
Former Hilltop coach Drew Westling had initially been hired to replace McFadden but subsequently resigned, which opened the door for Texler, who had initially expressed interest in the job but reportedly withdrew his name from consideration.
Now that coaches are finally set, the season isn’t.
Normally at this stage of the season, football teams are competing in off-season seven-on-seven passing drills.
However, the ongoing pandemic has created a tilted landscape.
“Unfortunately, it does give those schools that can practice an unfair advantage,” Wagner said. “As far as what we’re doing right now basically revolves around online meetings.”
Arciaga, who was named head coach at the school just one day before the spring schedule pause, said summer workouts can be a liability issue for coaches and offseason programs.
“Baron football will be waiting to conduct physical activities until we get authorization/backing from the district,” Arciaga said. “We are as anxious as everyone else to get out on the field with our kids, but we want to make sure that we prioritize the health/well-being of our players/coaches/volunteer/other school staff as well as make sure we abide by our district’s guidance.”
Schools were cleared to start summer workouts as long as they followed COVID-19 guidelines, which included a check of players’ temperatures as they entered the field, the wearing of face masks and working in small groups.
One player at Helix High School tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, according to head coach Robbie Owens, though the player was said to be asymptomatic.
The team later suspended activities.
According to the present timeline, full football practices are set to start July 30, and other fall sports on Aug. 1.
COMMUNITY COLLEGE SPORTS
The California Community College Athletic Association has voted to implement its contingency plan for the upcoming 2020-21 intercollegiate term. As a result, football, soccer, water polo, women’s volleyball and cross country will all move from the fall semester to the spring semester. Basketball, which previously straddled the fall and spring semesters, becomes a spring sport. Practices are set to begin in January, with competition starting in early February.
