Could St. Patrick-St. Vincent and Benicia high schools be league rivals? Well, it may be close to happening.
St. Pat’s petitioned the Diablo Athletic League to join the conference for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year. The Tri-County Athletic League is splintered with the West Contra Costa County schools only playing one another and Vallejo and Jesse Bethel voting not to play this year unless students are allowed back on campus.
The athletic directors in the DAL agreed to let the Bruins join the league in a shortened prep athletic year impacted by COVID-19 conditions. The principals in that league, however, vote on Thursday to make the final decision.
St. Pat’s Athletic Director Lane Hawkins sent an email to parents this week, letting them know about the possible change:
“Unfortunately, two school districts in the TCAL indicated they would not have sports or allow competition outside of their county,” he wrote. “As a result, I have reached out to the DAL to request that we be included in their schedule. I’ve received tentative approval, but I’m awaiting final approval from their principals on (Thursday).”
The Bruins would move back to the TCAL for the 2021-22 school year.
If the principals agree, Hawkins wasn’t sure if his school would be part of the Foothill or Valley division or whether more competition against Benicia would transpire.
Hawkins previously petitioned the Monticello Empire League about joining but that conference wasn’t interested in adding another school. All of the MEL schools are from Solano County while a majority of the schools in the DAL are from East Contra Costa County.
Hawkins said that if the DAL principals vote no on the proposal, it’s not an end game for St. Pat’s playing sports this spring although he noted that it’s less ideal.
“That’s kind of a peacemeal situation,” Hawkins said. “We’d try to find competition sport by sport and trying to find games to fill out the schedule.”
Currently, the following sports are allowed to play in California’s purple tier — tennis, golf, cross country, swimming and track and field. In some areas those sports have already started competition.
Sports like baseball and softball are allowed to be played in the red tier. Others like football and water polo are orange-tier sports.
Football is the only sport under a deadline. The North Coast Section has determined that football cannot be played beyond April 17 without interfering with the fall 2021 season. Ideally, a number of coaches in the state would like to play at least a five-game season.
Hawkins, who doubles as the school’s football coach, would be open to an even shorter season — if that comes to pass.
“If we can only play one game, we’ll play one game,” he said. “There is no money aspect to this decision where we’d hold something up if it meant the kids missing out. One of the things I said at the end of the letter was to have parents get their kids involved.”
Hawkins said practice for the aforementioned sports has begun on campus. Other sports are still in conditioning as they wait for the state’s tiers to improve.
Hawkins indicated that he’s still encouraging students to participate in sports even if they didn’t commit to conditioning earlier in the school year.
“We’re not putting any limits or any restrictions on them,” he said. “Even if they haven’t come out before, we encourage them to come out and play.”
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