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High school sports teams navigating season preparations

Marco Arias, head coach of the Fallbrook High School boys' varsity cross-country team, said he is fortunate to be coaching the sport he is.

"We're one of the programs that actually is pretty fortunate that they give us a class for the team," Arias said. "I've been able to engage them through the classroom, the Google Classroom, setting up training schedules for them and making sure that they have training logs. Since we're not a club and we technically can't be on campus, on Saturdays we meet at Christ the King, Los Jilgueros; we meet there Saturday mornings kind of to connect with one another."

Arias said he's pleased with how his athletes have responded.

"It's going really well; training is going well," Arias said. "I'm looking at their times, and they're better than what I expected from them at this point of the year. We just had to make a big switch from summer training to start now to get ready to run in December. I think by the time we get to December I think they're going to be in great shape just because I have more of a pulse on them. In summer, we kind of turned them loose, and they're running on their own and so forth. But right now, it's keeping them more on the logs and keeping abreast of any injuries that are coming up. I like it. I like it a lot."

He said that he gave the runners a bit of a break when they found out the season wouldn't start until December, three months later than the season regularly starts.

"I kind of laid them off and (said), 'Hey, relax, take a week or two off. And then we'll go back when we start school and that'll give us enough,'" he said. "'Because I don't want your legs being shot.' Because after cross-country, literally right after cross-country, we start track. I said, 'I don't want your legs shot completely because generally the legs need a couple of months or so to recoup.'

"That's gotta be a little more planning on my part as far as how much, how much in what quantity," he said.

Arias said his athletes were excited to find out they would have a season after all.

"They're very excited," he said. "Especially my couple of seniors, like Denny Contreras; he was worried that he wasn't going to get to finish out. He was excited. Believe it or not, they are actually looking forward to a lot more in the winter than they are December. Especially like last week where you got 100-plus (temperatures). Normally we'd have to train through that. So, it'll be a different experience running in the cool of the winter, so we'll see. Some days we're going to get a lot of rain, so we have to make sure that we train accordingly."

As far as athletes having to make choices between sports given the tightening of the seasons from two to three, "at this point we haven't lost anything," Arias said. "The loss is going to be in the transition when we go from cross-country to track, because then we merge with the winter sports, doing them with the spring sports. And that's where it's going to be real tricky.

"I'll use my own son. He came out and started to pole vault last year, but he does wrestling in the winter. So, he's like, 'OK, do I have to make a choice between the two?' I said, 'Well, I'm willing to let you go to wrestling as much as you need to. Then if you can come out here to make sure you don't hurt yourself in the pole vault, that would be fine.'"

Arias said coaches are going to have to work together.

"We got to share these kids and be together on what it is we want to accomplish," he said. "Because, ultimately, the idea of every single kid's going to go and participate in college. We need to give them the experience to be able to participate in more than one sport, if they choose to."

For Sean Redmond, head coach of Fallbrook High's girls' varsity water polo team, whether or not his athletes will be allowed back into the school pool before the official start to the season is still up in the air.

"According to an email I got from (athletic director) Pat Walker, they're looking at trying to allow the fall (and) winter teams to come in starting on the 28th of September," Redmond said. "I haven't got confirmation about getting in (the pool) from the superintendent, so I'm not sure where that stands. So, I know that that is the possibility.

"I've been trying to get our club team in and haven't gotten contacted about whether or not we can get in. So, I'm not sure," Redmond said.

Redmond said that Bill Richardson, the boys' varsity water polo head coach, has all his girls water polo players in his sixth period class. As of yet, Redmond hasn't had much contact with his athletes that are officially allowed to begin practice in early December and will start playing later that month.

"I've been in contact with a few of the kids, but, I know that for a number of the boys they've been going down to the Rancho Bernardo area to practice with Pacific Water Polo a couple of nights a week," he said. "I don't know what the girls are doing. I have one swimmer who is going down to Escondido and training with a club down there for swimming. But that's about it."

Redmond wondered whether the Sept. 28 floated idea will actually happen because he's heard that the Fallbrook Union High School District may not allow students back on campus until the end of the first quarter.

"That would take it into November sometime, I think," he said. "If we're not allowing students on campus, how are we doing this?"

Walker was scheduled to give a report during the district's board meeting Monday, Sept. 14, after press time.

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].

 

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