Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, schools have been shut down for at least the entirety of the first semester. As a result, the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) announced that high school fall and winter sports will be postponed and moved to spring. 

Fortunately, as life slowly starts to return to normal, sports for Venice athletes will come back soon, too. 

As announced by CIF on Twitter last July, the new spring schedule for sports typically set in the fall is a radical change. Venice fall and winter sports impacted include boys’ and girls’ soccer, basketball, cross country, water polo, football, and girls’ golf, tennis, and volleyball. 

Alfredo Korzenik, Venice’s athletic director gave some valuable information on the logistics of sports returning in the spring.

“All sports will take place on campus, but that is only if the district allows student-athletes to return to school,” Korzenik said. 

“It will be up to the district to allow its schools to actually have sports and meet for practices and contests,” he said. “At this point, Superintendent Beutner has said that LAUSD will follow the state and local health organizations and guidelines regarding return to school for students.” 

Korzenik also pointed out the district will also determine if there will be fans or not, but they have not disclosed that information at this time. If the events are allowed, the athletes will try out as early as the first day of practice, as long as they have a 2.0 GPA, have a cleared athletic physical, and have registered with athleticclearance.com. 

“For some returning athletes, the tryouts might be a formality, but nevertheless every student-athlete will need to be cleared by me before they can set foot on any practice field—even virtual practices—as all athletes must be cleared prior to participation in any sport,” he said.

Despite the delay of games, some athletes don’t seem to be concerned.

“I’ve been getting in shape so I’m not worried at all,” said junior Victor Oguwekwe, who will be trying out for basketball for the first time. “But I think it is a good idea for the district to move sports to spring because it gives people time to reset with so much craziness happening.” 

Sports tryouts will take place on the same day as practices. The schedule is as follows:

December 14, 2020: Competitive Cheer, Boys and Girls Cross Country, Football, Boys and Girls Volleyball, and Boys and Girls Water polo.

February 8, 2021: Boys’ and girls’ tennis

February 15, 2021: Boys’ and girls’ soccer

March 1, 2021: Boys’ and girls’ basketball; boys’ and girls’ swim and dive

March 8, 2021: Baseball; softball; and boys’ and girls’ golf