Let Them Play CA Settles Lawsuit; All Sports Allowed To Return

ORANGE COUNTY, CA —California parents, coaches, and players across the state have vigorously fought for returning student-athletes safely back to competitive sports. On Thursday, at least one of multiple lawsuits filed in the Let Them Play sports movement against California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been settled.

Brad Hensley, one of the Let Them Play CA movement leaders, shared the news with Patch Thursday morning and detailed the health and safety factors for returning players to the courts and fields amid a pandemic. Hensley's son is a quarterback at Mission Hills High School, and his two daughters dance competitively. The girls haven't been able to perform in 11 months. His son just got back to the field recently.

After football, soccer, water polo, and lacrosse were allowed to resume one week ago, the indoor sports of volleyball, basketball, and wrestling still awaited Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health's permission to compete under protocols already in place at the college and professional sports level.

Thursday, everything changed for the better.

"It's starting to set in," Hensley told Patch. "After 10 weeks of 24/7, constant non-stop work, we've finally got a deal that works for all sports."

The original San Diego lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom centered on San Diego high school coach Martin Gardinera and his son, Nicholas.

In Orange County, students have asked for a similar restraining order to allow youth sports to be played in Orange County and have filed suit against the County of Orange, Dr. Clayton Chau of the Orange County Health Care Agency, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and the California Health Department. Five athletes and their parents include a basketball player, a wrestler, a cheerleader, and two volleyball players. All have lobbied for competitive playing time. Now, they have a legal precedent for that case.

"The Gardineras represent all of the kids who now have the opportunity to play competitively, which was critical," Hensley said. "We couldn't leave out any sport. This ruling works for 50 of the California counties. We got as close to Christmas as we could."

Along with a return to competitive play for indoor and outdoor athletes, there will be testing for the coronavirus.

"There is an allowance for testing with outdoor sports," Hensley said. "Football, water polo, and rugby players and coaches will all be tested until that county reaches under seven per 100,000.

There was no testing parameter allowed by the suit from the state, according to Hensley. "We worked that out," he said.

Covid Project 11:11, a private agency, will test athletes and coaches for the coronavirus regardless of each county’s coronavirus case count. All testing will be paid for through CARES Act funding, insurance, and there will be no out-of-pocket costs to schools or families, which was a point of concern, according to Hensley.

"It's serendipitous," Hensley said. "We reached out to universities, institutions, and school districts. It was so fragmented that we needed a statewide solution." Schools across the state can register and learn more information on Covid-19 Testing for High School Sports at www.testtodayca.com.

The coronavirus pandemic has underscored socioeconomic disparities: Club players who pay to play were able to travel and play team sports elsewhere, while those without the means to do so were not so lucky.

"High schools in lower-income areas wouldn't be able to pay for testing," Hensley said. "It had to be the same for everyone."

Read: 'Let Them Play' California Lawsuit Fights For Youth Sports

Under Newsom's former color-coded tier system, indoor sports would not have been able to reopen until counties achieved a yellow tier or had fewer than one case per 100,000 people. In Riverside County, that ruling was changed one week ago. The ability to play or not play was fragmented across the state, with no formal ruling or unified structure, according to Hensley.

The state recently modified its system to allow outdoor athletes to compete when their county reached 14 cases or fewer per 100,000 people. In Orange County as of Wednesday, the case rate had dropped to 7.6 cases per 100,000.

Read: SoCal Sports Advocates Challenge Gov. Newsom To Let Kids Compete

The issue with returning to youth sports was more than just the need for competition play. It was a mental-health ticking time bomb, according to California state Rep. Laurie Davies. Davies and other state legislators wrote an open letter to Newsom in January expressing their concerns about the mental health of young people who can't turn to sports to help them through the pandemic.

Davies wrote that she was worried about "losing an entire generation of students," a concern expressed by O.C. Supervisor Lisa Bartlett and the Let Them Play coalition, which said they would not back down until all youth sports were reopened.

The same week, two San Diego-area high school athletes filed a lawsuit against the state and county over coronavirus restrictions on high school sports.

The suit argued that millions of student athletes across California remained barred from participating in athletic activities without adequate medical evidence to support the restrictions.

The San Diego complaint was originally filed on behalf of Nicholas Gardinera, a senior at Scripps Ranch High School, and Cameron Woolsey, a senior at Mission Hills High School. It alleged that 47 other states have allowed high school sports to resume and that the "plaintiffs know of no evidence that allowing high school sports has led to an increase in COVID-19 transmission or hospitalization in any of those 47 states."

The Let Them Play CA online movement grew to more than 61,000 supporters.

Since the pandemic began in March, student athletes have gotten the short end of the stick, advocates argued. Professional athletes returned to play within bubbles or with tightened coronavirus rules and regulations, but youth athletes were still barred from playing games, they said.

At the same time, parents of Los Alamitos High School athletes, who stood in the rain Friday at a rally in support of their students, said they felt politicians dragged their feet instead of making a decision.

Davies said children 12 to 17 years old were feeling the most stress from the pandemic. Few had outlets to relieve that stress and their mental and physical health were in jeopardy, she said.

As athletes return to courts and fields, those who support them are still unable to return.

Sideline cheer vs. competitive cheer, marching band and other activities do not fall under the state's sports guidance. "The state sees them as more of an activity than a sport. They do not fall under this guidance but school activities," Hensley said.

"Should they be able to be out there? Of course they should," Hensley said. "How can you have a football team hitting each other, sweating on each other, but you won't allow females on the sideline, standing socially distant and cheering? That's next."

Patch will update this report with comments from Newsom's office and the health department offices when those are received.

Photo Op:

Share a picture of your high school athlete or team with Patch editors for a chance to be featured on Patch. Tell us a bit about your team, why your student-athlete is looking forward to returning, and photo permission, and we'll get the word out.

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