By Liam Moore

September 14, 2020

   As a result of the coronavirus outbreak, many of our school sports have been rearranged by the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF). Any rumors that there will be no sports until spring or that there are no winter sports are incorrect.

   On July 20th, CIF released their new schedule – which can be reached at cifss.org or on Malibu High School’s website – for all sports during this new school year. Many sports now have new seasons, for example, boys volleyball is now in the fall, when it used to be in the spring. 

   CIF has done this “primarily to help with the spacing between particular sports and the overlap of certain sports between seasons”. In short, the seasons were moved around to accommodate for the coronavirus outbreak. There have been no updates since July 20, and with the ever-changing number of coronavirus cases, there may be more changes to the schedule.

   There have been no official announcements by either the school or CIF that sports are postponed until spring. There is a low probability that sports will be canceled this semester, seeing that many private organizations in Southern California are allowing people and student-athletes to use their facilities for training. 

   Additionally, the Pepperdine Women’s Beach Volleyball Team has recently started practicing at Zuma, with nets and balls, despite volleyball being prohibited on LA county beaches. This has led to the assumption that MHS will allow students to start practicing on school grounds soon, but it is still too soon to say. 

   With sports seasons moved around, there was a possibility that multi-sport athletes would have trouble playing their regular sports. However, no students have spoken out about this issue with concern.

  In fact, this schedule change has allowed some athletes to play both of their preferred sports. Jared Hughes, a senior baseball player said, “That’s so hype” when he heard that boys volleyball was in the fall, allowing him to play both sports.