Irvine Valley College athletics will be opting out of California Community College Athletic Association Spring I Sport competition due to the recent surge of COVID-19 cases, current pandemic conditions throughout the Southern California region and the stay-at-home order in the state.
The South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees accepted the opt-out recommendations for both Saddleback and Irvine Valley at its Dec. 14, 2020 meeting.
IVC sports affected for Spring I include men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball and men's and women's basketball.
The CCCAA requested member colleges make an opt-in or opt-out decision by Dec. 18, 2020. The CCCAA had previously outlined competition guidelines for traditional fall and winter sports starting in February with 70 percent of a normal schedule.
Irvine Valley and Dean and Athletic Director Keith Shackleford are hopeful that if conditions improve and guidelines for the state and region fall in line, that Irvine Valley could compete in the Spring II sport of competition.
Those sports would include women's badminton, baseball, men's and women's tennis, men's volleyball and women's beach volleyball. Those sports would start competition in April.
When it could be safe to do so, intercollegiate teams will be permitted to resume outdoor athletic conditioning, but will not particiapte in competitions for Spring I.
Irvine Valley teams began conditioning/training again - and were some of the first in the state to do so - in mid October. Laser squads, with health protocols, including advanced health screening, temperature checks, mask wearing and social distancing each day that they trained, were on campus until early December.
The CCCAA established the COVID-19 contingency plan this past June, which called to move all traditional fall sports and winter sports to Jan. 18, 2021, for the first date of practice with regular competitions slated to start in February and compete through April 10, 2021.
The CCCAA COVID-19 contingency plan calls for traditional spring sports (Spring II) to have their official practice windows beginning March 27 and an official competition start date of April 10.
The SOCCCD and Irvine Valley administration will continue to monitor city, region and state guidelines and is expected to make a decision on Spring II competition (traditional spring sports) near the end of February.