CIF Won’t Allow Players To Simultaneously Compete in Club and High School Sports

With most high school sports having the clear to compete, CIF reaffirms its previous position of not allowing simultaneous play with club teams.

Just one day after the CIF Southern Section announced they will not host fall championships, Ronald W. Nocetti, the executive director for the CIF, announced last week that they will not allow its athletes to play for club teams in order to meet guidelines set by the California Department of Public Health and the governor’s office.

This stance is nothing new to the CIF. The federation normally has bylaws in place that prevent athletes from playing for “outside teams” during their high school seasons. Known as Bylaws 600-605, these rules were developed to prevent burnout and a higher risk of injury.

However, with the adjustments that were made to the California high school sports calendar in mid-July of last year, the CIF announced that they would be temporarily suspending those bylaws in order to allow coaches and players a level of flexibility throughout their efforts in maintaining a healthy playing environment.

Yet with talk heating up of high school competition returning in full form this upcoming semester, the CIF decided to rescind the suspension of Bylaws 600-605, as state guidelines released last month noted that players and coaches shall “refrain from participating with more than one team over the same season or time period.” 

“Therefore, the CIF must rescind its temporary suspension of CIF Bylaws 600-605 effective immediately to avoid being in conflict with the language issued by the Governor’s Office and the CDPH,” Nocetti said in the statement. “If the CDPH Guidance is amended in the future, the CIF may elect to revisit this issue.”

Along with declaring the reinstatement of these bylaws, the statement also clarified that players who had already participated in non-high school competition will not be ineligible to compete this upcoming season since there has yet to be CIF contents. However, Bylaws 600-605 were immediately brought effective following the release of the announcement.

Although the CIF’s statement mentions nothing of multi-sport athletes, since they are following strict state guidelines about the “cohorting” of individual teams, it seems that these kinds of athletes will only be able to compete in one of their desired sports in 2021.

There are still questions about when high school competition is set to begin, if at all.

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