Santa Barbara City will opt out of late spring sports season

SANTA BARBARA - Santa Barbara City College has made the institutional decision to opt out of sports in the late spring window, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These sports are all of the traditional spring sports -- Baseball, Softball, Men's Volleyball, Men's Golf, Men's Tennis, Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field, Women's Swimming & Diving, Women's Tennis and Women's Beach Volleyball.

"We're disappointed to opt out of late spring competition, but hope we can re-examine things at a later date if conditions improve," said Director of Athletics Rocco Constantino. "We're still in the most restrictive purple tier and while numbers are improving, we have not yet been able to move out of the purple tier as a county."

Constantino added that the Vaqueros are "keeping their options open for some level of competition which could include competition between schools, scrimmages between schools or intrasquad scrimmages among ourselves."

The CCCAA allows schools to opt back in if they originally opted out. The CCCAA has a deadline of February 26 for schools to declare whether or not they will be competing in intercollegiate athletic competition this spring.

"I empathize with our students, coaches and families, but the way things stand at this point, I believe this is the best option we have," said Constantino. "It's hard to commit to moving forward with athletics when the current COVID conditions don't allow us to move forward with in-person academics. I am thankful that we are open to revisiting the decision at a later date and hope that if the situation continues to improve, we may be able to take a step forward."

(Dave Loveton, Santa Barbara City College Athletics)