[Updated- State CIF makes changes] The new state rule on air quality complicates practices as the season nears

[Dave Keefer]

In October last year, the CIF implemented a rule that prohibits outdoor sports practices and games when the Air Quality Index (AQI) is above 150. In the Santa Clarita Valley, schools have been scrambling for practicing times.

Some football teams are going to have to figure out scheduling ideas for practices because of new state rule on air quality. With classes starting, the options will be either real early before school or early evening.

 

[Dave Keefer]

Per the San Diego Union-Tribune:

With the September heat coming, some CIF San Diego Section schools are getting relief. CIF state officials ruled Wednesday that San Diego’s inland schools can move to Category 2 from Category 1 when it comes to extreme heat mitigation measures.

Schools located east of Interstate 15 can now practice or play games if the temperature is at or below 89.9 degrees as measured by a WetBulb Globe thermometer. To start the school year, most of the CIF San Diego Section schools were placed in Category 1, which capped the WetBulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) at 86.2 degrees.

The policies were the result of Assembly Bill 1563 and State CIF Bylaw 503 K, which addressed Extreme Heat Procedures across California. Coaches throughout San Diego County said they agreed in principle to some restrictions, but worried that practices and games would have to be unnecessarily delayed or even canceled under a catch-all threshold that treated coastal and inland schools the same.

San Diego County covers 4,526 square miles. And nearly all San Diego Section schools, from Oceanside on the coast to El Capitan in Lakeside, were initially listed as Category 1. The San Diego Section’s nine desert schools remain in Category 3, which puts the WBGT at 92.0 degrees.

“This was a change that needed to be made. And not just for our section, but across the state,” said CIF San Diego Section Commissioner Joe Heinz. “It was the right move.”