California summer rec leagues could face delays

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, California’s summer recreation sport leagues might be facing some delays.

California’s rec volleyball season was already forced to stop midseason earlier in the year as the pandemic spread across Mid-Missouri. While potential target dates are in discussion for summer athletics such as baseball, softball and swimming, things are still up in the air.

California Parks and Rec Director Leslie Scheidt said after talking to other member towns in California’s baseball and softball leagues, they are looking at a possible start date for games on June 8. Scheidt said the season would then run through the end of July. However, Scheidt did say that could change.

“Without being able to start practice until June 1 at the earliest, we may have to push that start back another week to allow a little more practice time,” Scheidt said.

Scheidt said the league had plans for more leaguewide calls to discuss the timeline further sometime soon.

“Those calls will probably be weekly, as things could still change at any time,” Scheidt said.

The league is keeping on eye on the number of cases of COVID-19 locally to help determine if the season will start in June.

“The biggest thing is going to be if we are at least holding steady or improving in case numbers, specifically within our county and the other counties that are part of our league,” Scheidt said. “If there are any big outbreaks or numbers start to look worse, we would probably just cancel. If for any reason the state goes back into a stay-at-home order or the county extends our current one into June, we would of course cancel as well. It will really just depend on how everything is progressing by late May.”

When it comes to the pool, Scheidt said the City Council decided to keep the pool closed to all public activities until at least June 1. The baseball and softball fields will also remain closed to any and all organized practices and games until June 1, Scheidt said. That date also marks the next City Council meeting, and Scheidt said there are plans to reevaluate the situation at that time for both facilities and related programs.

As a result, Scheidt said registration for California’s swim lesson program that would normally start its first session at the beginning of June has been postponed for now.

“We have postponed all registration on that at the moment because we just don’t know when or how we can make that program work right now,” Scheidt said. “The CDC is supposed to be coming out with some guidelines in the next week or two that will have some specifics for aquatic facilities and programs, which should help us there.”

For the most part, Scheidt said Parks and Rec programs are still in a holding pattern.

“But I’m hopeful that as the next few weeks unfold, we’ll have a better idea of how to make these facilities and programs operate in a safe way for our community,” Scheidt said.