By Eli Walsh, Bay City News Foundation
Outdoor youth sports will soon be allowed to resume in California counties that meet a threshold for coronavirus cases, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.
Outdoor sports like football and baseball will be allowed to resume as early as next Friday, Newsom said during a briefing in Alameda County.
While indoor sports competitions are still prohibited, outdoor youth sports will be allowed in counties that have case rates of fewer than 14 new cases per day per 100,000 residents.
As of Friday, 27 counties across the state met that threshold, including Alameda, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties. The case rate in San Benito County was 22.3 per 100,000 residents as of Feb. 19.
“The fact that kids are not even in school and don’t even have the ability to organize around sports, it’s impacting them in profound and significant and, in many cases, deleterious ways,” Newsom said.
Let Them Play CA, a group of youth sports coaches and student athletes across the state that have advocated for sports to resume, lauded Newsom and state legislators for lifting the ban on outdoor sports.
“From the moment the governor called us to say he would work with us to help get sports back for kids, it has been a methodical march to get to this wonderful place,” Let Them Play CA said in a joint statement with the Golden State High School Football Coaches Community.
“It has not been easy; there were many bumps along the way, but good people kept working together to create a positive outcome for our most ‘essential business’- our kids.”
