The Central Coast Section on Wednesday established backup plans for the weekend’s playoff action.
In case of any further postponements because of poor air quality stemming from the ongoing Camp Fire just east of Chico, the CCS office has secured five neutral sites in the southern portion of the section that will serve as hosts for multiple football games.
Alisal, Alvarez, Pacific Grove, Salinas and Watsonville will hold triple-headers on Saturday if any of Friday’s games are rescheduled.
Aptos and Terra Nova are set to play in Pacifica at 7 p.m. on Friday, but their CCS Open Division III matchup could be moved to Watsonville at 7 p.m. if the air quality in the coastal city just south of San Francisco does not improve.
The CCS also set up a contingency plan for Saturday’s cross country championships. If the meet is rescheduled, it will be moved from Crystal Spring Cross Country Course in Belmont to Toro Park in Salinas on Sunday.
A decision on both the football games and the cross country meet is expected to be made Friday morning.
In an email obtained by the Pajaronian, section commissioner Duane Morgan informed the schools participating in upcoming CCS events that he appreciated the cooperation by all.
“It is the expectation that this cooperation will continue and please do not allow any type of gamesmanship to interfere with this laid out plan,” Morgan wrote. “People wanting to change this or that, thinking that one team is getting an advantage over another team will not be entertained — we are way beyond that point.”
The decision to set up backup sites comes a day after the 10 section commissioners of the California Interscholastic Federation voted to push the football regional and state playoffs by a week to accommodate teams dealing with the impact of the state’s most destructive fire.
The NorCal Championships are now set for Dec. 7-8, while the CIF Championships at Cerritos College will take place the following weekend.
Only five of 20 scheduled CCS football games were played last weekend, as smoke filled the air throughout the Bay Area.
Aptos was originally scheduled to play Terra Nova on Nov. 9, but the game was pushed to Saturday. It was pushed twice more, from Saturday to Monday and Monday to Friday.
The cross country meet was also pushed back a week from its original date, Nov. 10.
Proposed CCS football triple-headers for Saturday:
