Given that Los Angeles County  and the CIF  haven’t  released any guidelines  for the upcoming school year, Diamond Bar High School athletes and coaches remain uncertain about the future of the fall season. 

“So we don’t know if it will start as regularly scheduled or if it will be postponed,” Athletic Director Albert Lim said via email. “We are scheduling games for the fall as if nothing has changed until we get notice of what the plan is.”

Though it’s undetermined when the fall season will happen, Lim confirms that the season will  take place. According to Lim, CIF-SS, the governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California, released a statement that it will work to guarantee that all three seasons will take place next school year. They plan to announce plans for high school sports on July 20. 

If DBHS does not reopen in August the fall season may be postponed until January, says Lim, where all three seasons will start simultaneously. 

“We are prepared for any postponement and have plans for our head coaches to virtually meet with their teams,” Lim said. 

But even with the possibility of a postponement, many coaches and athletes are still training for a season in August. Malinalli Cooke, the head coach for cross country and track and field at DBHS, said she believes in the importance of keeping her athletes motivated and in shape.

“We could try virtual competitions so that they are not just doing endless training,” Cooke said via email. “I don’t want the athletes to feel that fall training would be pointless, monotonous, and tedious, I would want them to have something in the near future to train for.”

Cooke said she is also looking into holding a virtual summer camp, where the athletes would record themselves doing their assigned workouts and submit them so that she could track their progress through Strava, a running and cycling app. 

Many Brahma athletes also share Cooke’s value for continuing their training at home. Sophomore Kelly Yan completes workouts sent to her from volleyball head coach  Lauren Adnoff to help her stay fit and ready for the upcoming season.

“It is very important to still train or at least stay healthy during this pandemic,” Yan said via Instagram. “Everyone training themselves is a way for our team as a whole to get ready for competition!”

Cooke expressed her worries that not having a proper fall season would be especially tough on the seniors. She said  she fears that many athletes will drop out of cross country since they might feel that training for an unofficial season is pointless.

But even with the anxiousness surrounding the future of the fall season, Cooke said she hopes that the athletes can take a valuable lesson from this expereince.

“My hope is that they will see athletics during the quarantine as more than just a competitionless sport, but as a way to stay connected, healthy, and fit,” Cooke said.

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