COVID-19 Update (April 1st)
Hello everyone,
We hope that you all have been doing well that you and your families have all been staying healthy and safe during these unprecedented times. After taking into account all of the recent updates, recommendations, and guidelines released/put in place by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the Orange County Health Agency (OCHA) as well as the actions taken by the majority of the school districts in Orange County to further extend their school closures, we wanted to give you all an update on the state of our Spring 2020 season as well as the league as a whole.
As of April 1st, we have decided to further postpone the start of our Spring 2020 season. Instead of having practices begin on April 8th/9th as originally planned when we first postponed the season back on March 13th, practices will now begin on June 10th/11th. First games will be pushed back to June 20th and the last day of the season will now be on August 22nd. While the situation continues to change as new information surfaces every day, we are basing the revised start dates on the federal social distancing guidelines that were originally put in place on March 16th (which have now been extended until April 30th), the stay-at-home order issued by the Governor of California, and the new dates that were released by the majority of the school districts in Orange County stating that schools will be closed up until May 8th in some districts (or even for the remainder of the school year as announced on April 1st by the state and county superintendents). During this time, we will continue to closely monitor the situation as well as continue to formulate a contingency plan should the season need to be postponed any further. If everything goes as planned, team assignments and practice schedules will be finalized on June 6th/7th and you will be receiving a phone call from us on on one of those days letting you know whose team your player is on and what night/time they practice. We will make sure to keep you all updated should any changes occur before then.
Now that the season has been further postponed, we are sure that many of you have questions regarding things such as the season timeline, age group/team placement, sign-ups, and other things of that nature, all of which we have tried our best to address below.
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Season Timeline: From now on we will refer to this upcoming season as our Summer 2020 season instead of our Spring 2020 season. By forgoing our Spring season, we hope to get ahead in terms of the timing of our seasons and to be able to still have two seasons take place this year (Summer + Fall) and then have our normal three-season per year rotation resume next year. Players who are currently registered for Spring 2020 do not need to re-register for Summer 2020 (the name change is more a formality than it is us signaling the start of a new season).
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Age Group/Team Placement: While the majority of the players who are currently enrolled in the league are still set to be placed on a team in the age group that they signed up for, it is important to note that some players may be asked to move up to an older age group this season due to them having a birthday between now and the start of the season and/or them going into a higher grade this Fall (i.e. if you have a player who is currently 8 years old and about to turn 9 and/or in 3rd grade and about to go into 4th grade, or a player who is currently 11 years old and about to turn 12 and/or in 6th grade and about to go into 7th grade, this may apply to them). All players’ age group placements will be considered on a case by case basis and all players will be placed in the age group that we feel suits them best based on their age, grade level, size, strength, skill, experience, and maturity level. No decisions like these will be made until it gets closer to the start of the season and we are in fact cleared to start the season as planned. We just wanted to give those of you who have players that fit the descriptions outlined above and who were planning to have the Spring season be your players’ last season in the 8U/11U a heads up so that you are prepared to have your players move up if deemed necessary. Even if the Spring season were to have happened as planned, the players described above would have still been asked to move up to an older age group this Summer since they would have still aged and still been on track to go into a higher grade level this Fall.
- Sign-Ups: Once we have finished restructuring all of the age groups, we anticipate that we will have room to take a limited number of sign-ups. Since we don’t plan on doing this until it gets closer to the start of the season and we are in fact cleared to start the season as planned, our plan is to hold off on taking sign-ups until Monday, May 25th. On that day, we will send out an update about the league as a whole, and if we are cleared to start the season as planned, we will post the link to sign-up for the season and release an official count of how many openings there are in all three age groups. Players who are currently on the wait-list and still wish to play this Summer will be given first priority to sign-up if there are enough spots open in the age group that they are wait-listed for (unless they fit the description of the players mentioned above who will be too old and/or in too high of a grade level to play in the age-group that they are wait-listed for). Seeing that we do anticipate a small number of new players to sign up for the season, we will be having an evaluation/sign-up day on Saturday, May 30th at the gym at Covenant Christian School in Orange (1855 N. Orange-Olive Rd. Orange, CA 92865) at the times listed below to give all of those players a chance to have their skill levels evaluated and to get fitted for their uniforms. If you have a player currently enrolled in the league who has never played for us before (i.e. this season is going to be there first season playing for us) it is mandatory for them to attend this evaluation/sign-up day because at that point in time it will have been over three months since we last saw your player, so there a chance that after we evaluate them again their evaluation score may differ from the one they received the first time that we evaluated them (three months is a long time to be away from the game for some players). Returners are also encouraged to attend the evaluations so that they can have their skill levels re-evaluated after a three month absence from the league and so that they can get in some scrimmage time before the season starts.
While all of this is very unfortunate and we hate to disappoint everyone who was looking forward to the season starting up next week, at this point in time our number one priority has to be the health and safety our players, their families, and the Orange County Shooting Stars community as a whole. Once we are able to return, we are committed to providing all of our players with a fun and safe environment to learn and enjoy the game of basketball as well as what we expect to be one of our best if not our best season yet. We appreciate all of your understanding in this time and as we sign off we want to remind you all that all of us are part of a very special community that we are very proud of and that at the end of the day we are all in this together. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Stay safe, be well, and we will see you all in the Summer. Thanks!
Evaluation Times: (May 30th)
- 8U: 1:00pm – 2:30pm
- 11U: 3:00pm – 4:30pm
- 13U: 5:00pm – 6:00pm
