Fall Athletics Update
September 18, 2020
As we get ready to welcome students back to the Mesa, one aspect of this new “norm” that still exists: What is the plan for athletics? All around the country, states and counties have been given different directives for what sports will look like. Some have not been hit as hard as others and have given schools the go-ahead to move forward with their normal competition schedule, while others hope that a plan set months from now will still be attainable when the time comes.
For the California Southern Section, CIF made the decision to postpone all sports competition until early December. Fall sports will be played during the winter months — December through early March. Winter and spring season competition will run concurrently from late February until late May. It will certainly make for an extremely busy six months, but the thought of sports returning in any capacity is an exciting one. For a detailed CIF schedule of every sports specific return to play dates, please click here.
The question that remains, what will the afternoon sports block look like at Cate until team sports return? In short, the plan is to still have an afternoon period with planned physical distanced activities that students will sign-up for. There will be a set of activities during the two week testing period and more added once that time is over. Some of those activities are listed below. Our goal is to keep students physically active while working back to a base conditioning level for when sports ultimately begin.
- Walking/hiking (supervised)
- Swimming (supervised)
- Biking (supervised)
- Tennis (coached)
- Strength and Conditioning (coached)
- Running (coached)
- Yoga (coached)
- Rock climbing (coached)
- Sport specific practices (coached)
New Volleyball Coach
The athletic department is excited to announce Jordon Dyer as the girls varsity volleyball head coach. Jordon previously served as the head coach for the girls junior varsity program.
“We have been incredibly fortunate to have had Jordon in our volleyball program for a few years now teaching our younger level student-athletes and have full confidence in Jordon’s ability to seamlessly step into the varsity roll,” said Director of Athletics Wade Ransom.
As a 5th generation Santa Barbarian, Jordon is deeply rooted within the local community. He competed on USA’s Youth Beach National Team in international competition, as well as in college as a setter and outside hitter. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Sociology at Long Beach State while minoring in Environmental Studies. Jordon recently obtained a Master of Science in Kinesiology from California Baptist University.
His most notable coaching accomplishments have come in women’s collegiate beach volleyball, where he helped Long Beach as well as Stetson, finish Top-5 in Division I. Jordon has enjoyed coaching Cate’s junior varsity girls team over the past two seasons and is looking forward to helping Cate’s varsity team continue its success on and off the floor.
“I’m looking forward to helping these young women build confidence as individuals, as well as teaching them how to best support the team as a whole,” Jordan said. “I’m excited to challenge and guide them in embracing and overcoming adversity on and off the floor.”