The term “challenging” took on a whole new meaning this past year for area athletic directors.

When all of high school sports came to a screeching halt in March of 2020, no one knew what was to come over the next year.

Athletes began training at home and didn’t have any connection with their sport in the usually busy summer.

The governing body of high school sports, CIF-Southern Section, gave occasional updates for the upcoming 2020-21 school year.

The big date for the first real important update from CIF came on July 20, 2020 when actual start dates could take place. The sports year would be broken up into only two seasons.

In the meantime, high school athletic directors in the area had no real start dates for fall sports such as football, cross country, boys water polo, etc.

The Norwalk Patriot recently caught up with a few of those AD’s at John Glenn, La Mirada, St. Paul and La Serna. Below are their reflections of the most difficult and unusual year they have every experienced.

**Linda Parra, Athletic Director at John Glenn High School in Norwalk, experienced a variety of issues and scheduling problems during the 2021 season. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)**

John Glenn High School and Southeast Academy (Norwalk)

Linda Parra, AD

Parra has been at the school for 20 years and teaches an amazing group of students in a special education class.

She has been the girls varsity basketball coach for 12 years and, in addition, the girls volleyball coach and girls tennis coach through the years. She then became an assistant AD in 2006 under current football coach Dave Cruz until 2013 and has held the AD position since then.

Below are her thoughts on the past year:

“The last few days I have been reflecting on this past year and a half and it's hard to put into words the amount of pride I have for our athletes and coaching staff,” said Parra, who graduated from Mojave High and Cal State University Los Angeles. “We ended last March not knowing what was going to happen with athletics and we began this year in the same boat. We had no answers for our athletes other than ‘just be patient.’

“Many of us honestly believed we would not have a season at all. And then in one day everything changed. We learned that we would have a matter of days to put together seasons and get the kids back in practice to play games. Our football season was pushed back as far as we could so that our coaches could do their best to get the kids ready for a game.”

She then thought, ‘How can you honestly prepare for a football season in a matter of a few weeks?’ It is pretty much unheard of yet our coaches took on the challenge. It was a ton of hard work and stress but they managed to coach a group of young athletes and provide them with an experience that many are grateful for. We were lucky to have David Cruz, Ernie Gutierrez, Ruben Rodriguez (Bear) and Eric Villalobos as part of our football staff along with other walk-on coaches. You guys led the way for all of our other athletic teams.”

Parra then reflected on the other sports that would play starting in March of this past year.

“After football season ended, we were then forced with the task of squeezing in all of our winter and spring sports into 2 1/2 months,” she added. “I think about all that those sports had to go through, and I am so grateful we have a coaching staff who is flexible and who honestly care about each other's programs. These coaches shared athletes, gym time, and field time with not only each other but also La Mirada, and they never complained. They did what was best for the kids.

“Our indoor athletes and coaches were COVID tested at least two times a week. Nobody enjoys the nasal swab COVID test, yet the athletes and coaches showed up for each testing appointment. Talk about dedication! The bi-weekly COVID testing allowed our basketball, wrestling, and boys volleyball programs a chance to compete. And how great it was to watch our boys and girls wrestling teams finish in first place in the 605 League and advance to the CIF playoffs.”

Sports is more than wins and losses.

“While many people like to judge a program by its wins and losses, I saw so much more take place this year that is more valuable than a win on a team record,” Parra said. “Despite how crazy of a ride this athletic season has been, our students were able to connect as teammates and were provided with positive experiences by their coaching staff. I have had the opportunity to speak to many parents who have shared how important this year has been for their child. These parents were so grateful for John Glenn.”

Parra concluded with big thanks to John Glenn and Southeast Academy staff members who have continued to show their support to the athletes.

“Thank you to our coaches for your time, energy, and dedication to our athletes,” she added. “Thank you for allowing me to send you, what feels like a million emails this year. I wish you all a wonderful summer and will see you next year. If any of you are interested in helping coach at JG next year, please contact me.”

La Serna High School

Steve Hemenway, AD

Hemenway just completed his second stint as girls varsity basketball coach, along with Tim Tisnado. Hemenway has led the Lancers to multiple Del Rio League titles.

He started at La Serna in 1990 and teaches Sports Management and Fitness for Life and became the athletic director in 2004.

Hemenway, who graduated from Santa Fe High, was as surprised as anyone when sports finally started.

“As horrible as cases and deaths were in November and December, I was shocked when the decision was made that there would be sports played beginning in January,” Hemenway said. “Scheduling and rescheduling of season one sports was not too difficult since our league had already adjusted to the new dates set by CIF. Time restrictions did not allow for many non-league games, but we did have to scramble as there were positive cases in programs we were scheduled to play.

“The biggest example being Santa Fe having to cancel our varsity football game, which was to be our first Del Rio League game.”

Season two becomes a challenge.

“Season two sports was, without a doubt, the most difficult three months of my AD tenure,” Hemenway said. “Our district (Whittier Union) had originally planned to limit our programs to only league contests, but that decision was reversed as things began to open up locally.

The number of sports competing at the same time during season two made facility use difficult.

“We had 38 different teams competing during this time frame. Getting officials for all of these events was difficult. The assignors of officials did a great job working with local athletic directors,” Hemenway said.

Transportation restrictions via bus led nearly all of our programs to allow parents to be responsible for getting their athletes to both home and away games, he said.

“The most difficult aspect of the job during season two was meeting the requirements of testing every two days for all indoor sports participants, coaches, and game management personnel,” Hemenway said. “The administration of La Serna did a fantastic job of getting us through this mandate. WUHSD was committed to providing the necessary materials and man-power to accomplish this.

“Another hurdle that we had to get over was the monitoring and controlling of spectators to meet L.A. County and district restrictions. For each event, both outdoor and indoor, we required each of our programs and all visiting opponents to provide us with a list of only household members that would be allowed to attend our events. For some events, the restrictions were as low as two guests, and never more than six guests, even for outdoor contests.”

La Mirada High School

Christine Mead, AD

Mead, who started at La Mirada in 2006, has taught PE, Aerobics, Dance, Health, AVID and Health and Fitness Management.

She assisted with varsity softball from 2006-08 and is currently the JV coach, starting in 2016.

“This year has been trying and stressful, but worth every minute,” said Mead, who is a La Mirada alum. “We had to schedule, reschedule and reschedule again this season. When we finally got the ok to practice/play, it was a mad dash to schedule, book officials, buses, etc. We got word about two weeks before football started that we could meet with our athletes and practice, but we had lots of protocols in place for safety.

“We were all so happy that we were going to be able to play whatever that looked like. From that moment on we were in hyper speed. We completed 14 sports in two and a half months. It was crazy, stressful, aggravating, frustrating, and rewarding all at the same time. To see the looks on the kids’ faces when they were able to practice and play was priceless.

“At La Mirada, we had added stress of not having facilities available as no football or soccer field, gym or track was available. We only had access to softball and baseball fields. So having to coordinate transportation to other facilities for my teams and work out times for practices and games with other schools added to the madness.”

“At the end of the day we won six league championships,” Mead added. “They were in baseball, softball, girls golf, boys tennis, boys and girls soccer - and a CIF championship in girls soccer.

“We had kids that were happy to play and I think we all appreciate being able to be outside with our teammates playing a game we love a little bit more now. I don't ever want to live a year like this again, but it was good to experience. It will make a ‘traditional’ year go so much easier.”

St. Paul High School

Rich Avina, AD

Avina started teaching at St. Paul in 2006, primarily in the Math Department. He has coached football, girls and boys basketball, head boys volleyball coach and strength and conditioning coach.

He has been the Director of Marketing and Admissions for the past seven years and, as of Jan. 1, 2021, he became athletic director.

“I took over as AD on January 1 and there were no sports going on,” said Avina, who graduated from St. Paul in 1994. “We then get some really quick movement in regards to games that are going to be played and you’re going over the scheduling and finding football games and a lot of contact with other athletic directors.

“A lot of lower levels were disintegrated due to the low numbers. Every day it was constant communication. On the Saturday or Sunday of the week prior to, I would get a list of home and away games, which could be 30 or 35 games being played. I would then break it down day by day.

“I would then communicate with the officials, AD’s and all of the protocols, making sure that they have all the information needed to play that game on your campus, which insures we have the temperature checkers, insuring we were able to follow all of the guidelines that were put in place. It was a lot of behind the scenes to make sure that the game happened.

“Our league director did a great job creating schedules that didn’t overlap as best as possible. Some of the games had to be played earlier, so that we could still get those games in.”

Avina laughed when asked what were his early days and his longest days.

“I would take the mornings for myself and I would be here every night to nine O’clock,” Avina explained. “It was 12-hour days pretty much five or six days a week. I was here at 7 am getting the gates opened for track.

“When I stepped into this position in January there was no sports going and the previous director, Mrs. Anderson, was here to help guide me. Then it caught fire.”

Avina explained some of the rescheduling of games, especially basketball.

“Because of COVID exposures, we had to reschedule a game and had to schedule the game on the last day of league play and as we got into that week, we got into a potential tie situation.

“The basketball assignor did a great job saying this is when we could get this done.”

Avina reflected on the past few months and said he regretted not being able to spend more time with his family.

“It all happened so fast,” Avina said. “I wish I could have spent more time with my family, my girls, my wife. I had to be obsessive about being on point what was going on. My regret was those few months, I did miss at home.”

“We didn’t have any overlapping of games,” Avina added. “The success was that the kids got to play the game. The wins, the losses, every part of it was the beauty of sports.”

Athletic directors reflect on a season unlike any other