California Parks and Rec aims to follow guidelines as events shift indoors

As the basketball season for California Parks and Recreation teams started earlier this month, Parks and Rec Director Leslie Scheidt said the teams are following guidelines with the coronavirus pandemic still a concern.

"Even though the school has gone virtual, they are still having their own sports and are allowing us to continue to use the gyms for our program as well," Scheidt said. "Just like the school was doing, if a child is notified that they have been exposed by the Health Department, then they quarantine for the required period with no participation in practices or games."

Social distancing in the stands is not much of an issue as there is a small number of people in the crowds, Scheidt said.

"The amount of spectators we have for games is pretty low with usually only a few family members for each player, so social distancing in the stands is easily kept," Scheidt said. "We encourage people to wear their mask to and from their seats as well."

Hand sanitizer is widely available for those in attendance and the basketballs are cleaned extensively.

"We have hand sanitizer available for the coaches and players during games, as well as spectators, and we sanitize the ball between every game," Schiedt said.

While some classes have been quarantined, Scheidt said the hope is that teams can still play the remainder of the season free of issues.

"Our teams were pretty small for our first week, with several classes having been quarantined in the last couple weeks, but we were still able to play with the kids we had," Scheidt said. "Our hope is that we can continue with the remainder of the season without any issues, with everyone following health department guidelines and recommendations."