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Santa Clara County sports teams will be the first in the country to face a second stop of the coronavirus, starting on Monday when a new county health order goes into effect.
Team practices and high school pro games will be banned in the county for three weeks, and officials have said there are no exceptions – not for the 49ers or any other team that has achieved the County permission to resume training this summer or fall.
“This means that for these teams they will not be able to play games or have practices where they have direct contact,” County lawyer James Williams said at a press conference on Saturday. .
The order will force teams in the middle of their seasons – like the county varsity football and basketball teams, as well as the 49ers, to act quickly. They will likely have to postpone or cancel games, or find another place to train and play outside of the county, as some did or did before their seasons.
Those approaching an expected season like the Sharks will also have to sort out alternative plans.
Here is where the teams stand on Saturday evening, a little over 24 hours after the order took effect:
49ERS
Shortly after the 49ers return to the Bay Area after Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams, they won’t be allowed to congregate at their Santa Clara headquarters or play games at Levi’s Stadium.
Under the ordinance, both football practices and games are banned in the county for three weeks from Monday. The Niners are scheduled to play the first of their last three home games next week against the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football. They also have home dates set for December 13 (vs. Washington) and January 3 (vs. Seattle). With the Week 17 game against the Seahawks falling outside of the three-week blackout, county officials may extend the ban.
The 49ers said in a short statement on Saturday that they are aware of the order and are working with the NFL to find a solution.
A plausible result could see the Niners cross the bay to Oakland Coliseum, which the Raiders left for Las Vegas after last season. Whether Alameda County health officials would be in favor of such an arrangement is not yet clear, as the cases also coincide.
COLLEGES
At the varsity level, a total of eight teams are currently in the middle of a season: men’s and women’s basketball teams from Stanford, State of San Jose and Santa Clara, as well as football teams from Stanford and of San Jose State.
The Cardinal and Spartans football teams have left the county to train before their season; Stanford practiced for several days at Woodside High School just across the county line from San Mateo County, while SJSU uprooted and went six hours north to the Humboldt State Arcata campus for a week and half before receiving permission from Santa Clara County health officials to practice and play at home. At the time, Stanford coach David Shaw said his team had at least three fallback plans in case the Cardinal had to move during the season.
San Jose State has just had its second game in a row called off due to an opponent’s coronavirus testing and tracing situation. Saturday’s highly anticipated conference game with Boise State was called a no-contest hours before kickoff.
All six basketball teams have just started their seasons, but not without the hiccups created by the coronavirus. The Stanford men, Santa Clara women and San Jose state men have all had their openings canceled – the Broncos’ women’s team tested positive and began a two-week quarantine on Tuesday.
The next game scheduled in the county will only last 14 hours after the ban goes into effect: Stanford’s No.2-ranked women are expected to host San Diego on Monday afternoon. Cardinal’s female coach Tara VanDerveer is just four wins away after surpassing Pat Summitt’s record 1,098 NCAA Division I wins.
THE SHARKS
A dozen Sharks players skated in small groups at Solar4America Ice, their training facility, in preparation for an upcoming training camp scheduled to begin in December. The NHL has announced plans to open its season in January, although it has yet to announce firm dates.
The Sharks could potentially move their training camp to Solar4America Ice in Fremont or the Oakland Ice Center, two Alameda County facilities that the team operates. It’s unclear, however, if the Sharks would run into the same issues there when it comes to large group skating as they might in Santa Clara County.
Another possible location for training camp could be Las Vegas, where there are numerous rinks for practice and a hotel area for players and staff. This summer, Las Vegas was in contention to become the hubs for the NHL playoffs before a spike in local coronavirus cases led the league to choose Toronto and Edmonton as its two bubble sites for the playoffs.
The Sharks have not played since the end of the NHL season in March because they were not among the 24 teams invited to resume the season.
HIGH SCHOOLS
The Central Coast section initially circled December 14 as the target date for the start of football training after the season was postponed to July, but it has become clear to many involved in preseason football that such a restart was unrealistic as cases escalated before Saturday’s county decision.
State officials reported earlier this month that they plan to release updated guidelines allowing certain preparation and youth sports, but wait to do so as cases continue to rise.
Central Coast Section Commissioner Dave Grissom, whose section covers the county, said preparation sports were not affected by Saturday’s ban because the state was on hold.
“I don’t think it changes much for us,” Grissom said on Saturday. “Until the guidelines changed, we couldn’t have done anything with contact or sports, anyway.”
Cam Inman, Curtis Pashelka, Darren Sabedra, and Fiona Kelliher also contributed to this story.
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