The Bay Valley Athletic League in East Contra Costa County is switching up its seasons in order to get as many sports into competition as possible before the school year ends under California’s colored tier system.

The league has also left room for two-sport athletes to participate in multiple seasons.

Girls golf and tennis, purple-tier sports, had competition start dates moved to February in order to fit a season in. Because the facilities are limited on competition days, boys golf and tennis will start in late April.

Swimming & diving, another purple-tier sport, will have its start dates moved up in order to accommodate swimmers who also want to play water polo, an orange-tier sport, later in spring.

“Some kids haven’t played sports in two years, essentially. That’s tough on a kid,” commissioner Steve Ahonen said in a phone conversation. “We want to maintain as many opportunities as we can for kids to play.”

Ahonen oversees the league of six schools that includes Pittsburg, Deer Valley, Heritage, Liberty, Freedom and Antioch. No more than 15 miles separate the schools, which simplifies the schedule logistics. The new schedule has the six schools playing each other in the regular seasons for the most restrictive purple- and red-tier sports — under state restrictions, schools can only play opponents within the county or in one adjacent.

For playoffs, individual sports with qualifying athletes in rescheduled purple-tier sports will play in a varsity tournament at the end of the season to determine champions.

For baseball and softball, red-tier sports, BVAL plans on setting up round-robin tournaments to determine championship teams.

Like most other leagues, football remains the biggest question mark.

“The million-dollar question becomes what to do if Contra Costa County is not in the proper-colored tier when a sport is scheduled to begin,” Ahonen said.

Football in the BVAL is scheduled to start on Feb. 22, but remains in the orange tier despite a push against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office from California football coaches to eliminate the color-tiered system in order to let all sports conduct competition in their given season before the year is up. But any progress on that front is slow moving.

The football season must be completed by April 17 at the very latest if it is to begin the next season on time in August.

“So if we are not in orange at that time, how far do we keep kicking the can down the road in order to get in even a partial league season?” Ahonen said.

But Ahonen is hopeful that, given the vaccine rollout and overall downward trend in new daily coronavirus cases, Contra Costa County will start to loosen restrictions for all other sports to start competition on time.

The BVAL released schedules for purple-tier and red-tier sports set to begin competitions in February and March. Sports in the orange and yellow tier, set to begin in April, have scheduled practice dates and competition end dates for orange- and yellow-tier sports. Here’s how it breaks down.

Purple tier

Cross country: Feb. 1 practice start date, Feb. 19 first competition, March 31 championships

Girls golf: Feb. 1 practice start date, Feb. 22 first competition, March 29 championships

Girls tennis: Feb. 1 practice start date, Feb. 23 first competition, March 29-30 championships

Swimming & diving: Feb. 15  practice start date, March 3 first competition, April 9-10 championships

Boys golf: March 29 practice start date, April 20 first competition, May 24 championships

Boys tennis: March 29 practice start date, April 20 first competition, May 24-25 championships

Track & field: March 29 practice start date, April 21 first competition, May 26 championships

Red tier

Baseball: March 8 practice start date, March 30 first competition, May 28 championships

Softball: March 8 practice start date, March 30 first competition, May 28 championships

Orange tier

Football: Feb. 22 practice start date, April 17 end date.

Girl’s and boy’s soccer: April 5 practice start date, May 29 competition end date.

Girl’s and boy’s volleyball: April 5 practice start date, May 29 competition end date.

Girl’s and boy’s water polo: April 12 practice start date, May 29 competition end date.

Yellow tier

Girl’s and boy’s basketball: April 5 practice start date, May 29 competition end date.

Girl’s and boy’s wrestling: April 5 practice start date, May 29 competition end date.

Competitive cheer: April 5 practice start date, May 29 competition end date.