What opening night could’ve looked like

EL CAJON – For those of you that were on the optimistic side, believing there will be high school interscholastic sports during the school year, athletic departments still needed to prepare just in case sports returned before an unsightly surge in the current regional pandemic crisis.

While our state took precautions early either in reaction to the circumstances or by the governor’s decree, the harmful virus’ resurgence will postpone what was to be the opening night of the high school football season that was announced not too long ago.

Meanwhile, nearly three dozen states conducted seasons with most conducting championships all the way up to the state level.

In that regard, the following is the composite East County high school football schedule for 2020-21.

A chance to realize the potential matchups that would have occurred this Friday and beyond. Hopefully, some of the athletic calendars in some sports can be contested.

The master schedule includes are all 11 football-playing schools in the Grossmont Conference, along with Christian High of the City Conference’s Eastern League, and Foothills Christian of the small-school division Pacific League, according to information gathered by EastCountySports.

The Grossmont Conference remains split into its traditional two leagues, but with a twist. The Grossmont Hills will now field only four teams — creating a “Super League” like in baseball – featuring Granite Hills, Grossmont, Helix and Steele Canyon. The remaining seven programs will collide in Grossmont Valley competition.

The same happened to Foothills Christian. The Knights will twice meet Army-Navy Academy, with both contests slated fr Junior Seau Field at Parkway Middle School.

The Knights were returning to 11-man football after building the county’s top 8-man program.

Even if there is a season now, all schedules are still subject to change. Each was slated for 7 p.m. unless noted. Also note, most (not all) City Conference schools play home games at 6:30 p.m.

In order to squeeze in fall, winter and spring sports before the end of the school year, football was being reduced from 10 games over an 11-week period to nine games over 10.

Any contingency plan now would likely include a six-game schedule with a possible one-week bowl-game series conducted between conferences, was one floated idea.

On Monday, a CIF spokesperson said that the CIF is going by a return-to-play date of Jan. 25 unless told otherwise by the California Department of Public Health. At this point, the CDPH has not had any more updates, although it was likely that athletics could only resume in each respective sport as it relates to the health-tier color we’ve become familiar with.