The California Community College Athletic Association (CCCA) Board of Directors approved its contingency plan July 9 to move all fall sports to the following spring season. 

The contingency plan has rescheduled fall sports in the first half of the spring term and moved spring sports to the second half of the spring term, according to City College Athletic Director Mitch Campbell. That represents a 30% cut to the total contest: no state championships, only regional championships in Northern California and Southern California. 

Campbell stressed that fall sports will return in the spring only if it’s safe to do so, adding that he’s hopeful about that possibility. 

“Part of this challenge and exercise for all of usーmyself includedーis to prepare and be as optimistic as we can,” said Campbell. “And it’s important for our student-athletes that we let it play out as long as we possibly can before things get canceled, so I want to be optimistic. And until somebody says we can’t do it, or we’re not playing, then we’re going to prepare to play.”

Campbell said the original plan was to reschedule fall sports later in the fall and ending by Thanksgiving. The plan was later changed to reduce the number to only noncontact sports—cross country, golf, swimming, and volleyball. 

Campbell said the third plan was moving everything to the spring semester, with the exception of cross country and golf. At the time, it was felt that those two sports could be played in May or early June, based on the status of the spread of COVID-19.

According to Campbell, the three original plans were set to take effect on July 15. As of June 1, if plan A couldn’t be implemented, then it would automatically move to plan B. By Aug. 5, if plan B was not feasible, then it would automatically move to plan C. 

When the pandemic worsened in June, the CCCAA Board of Directors didn’t wait until the first deadline of July 15, Campbell said. On July 9, the Board voted to implement the current contingency plan. 

According to the plan, should the athletic teams resume play in spring 2021, Campbell said the games and meets would likely be played without spectators since the safety of the student-athletes, coaches and staff is the college’s primary concern.

“You know, as you’ve seen, the [professional] sports that have played thus far have been played without fans,” said Campbell. “If we’re allowed to have fans come to see the games, that’d be great, but that’s going to be secondary. We’d figure out a way—we’d do more streaming of events to allow our fans to be able to see the game. But my guess is if we play, that it would likely be without fans.”

Campbell said that he has had a lot of conversations with coaches who are unhappy about their student-athletes not being able to compete.

“I think first and foremost they’re disappointed for their student-athletes,” he said of the coaches. “But right away on the flip side of that is trying to be positive, needing to be positive, and getting across the message that it doesn’t matter whether we play or not in terms of the end goals for our student-athletes, which is to have academic success and be able to transfer to a four-year school.

“We want to play—we understand that side of it is important—but we also know that there’s a lot of work to do even if we’re not playing academically to prepare ourselves for when we do play again.”