Air quality a concern

Barry Faulkner

Administrators at local high schools and colleges, concerned with air

quality, chose to limit physical activities Monday. Some athletic

teams, including all those at Sage Hill School, did not practice

outdoors, but no practices or events involving Newport-Mesa athletic

teams were canceled.

A typically light Monday calendar included two golf matches,

involving the Costa Mesa High girls and the Orange Coast College

women, as well as girls volleyball matches for Corona del Mar High

and Sage Hill.

School officials said decisions on whether to restrict future

contests or practices, due to airborne ashes from wildfires in

neighboring regions, would be made on a day-to-day basis.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District directed schools to

curtail physical education classes, as well as athletics. It did not

ban practices or games, as did some Orange County school districts.

Sage Hill, a private school in Newport Coast, asked its outdoor

sports teams to practice indoors.

Orange Coast College President Gene Farrell directed his coaches

and physical education instructors to either cancel or limit

activities, as they saw fit. Ferrell’s instruction also gave students

and athletes the right not to participate, if they so chose.

The air quality issues created by fires in San Bernardino, Rancho

Cucamonga, San Diego County and elsewhere, prompted Irvine Unified,

Capistrano Unified, Saddleback Valley Unified and Tustin Unified

school districts to cancel contests involving their schools.

Saddleback Valley also canceled practices.

Santa Ana Unified limited practices to seventh period only and the

Huntington Beach Union School District advised its coaches to

prohibit “prolonged vigorous outdoor exercise.”

The Huntington Beach district directive cited reports from the

South Coast Air Quality Management District proclaiming air quality

in South Orange County as somewhere between unhealthy and unhealthy

for sensitive groups.

Newport Harbor High boys athletic director Eric Tweit, also the

school’s girls cross country coach, said he advised his coaches to be

cautious and conscientious.

“We did not get complete direction [from the district], but they

were basically asking us to be smart and not do anything too

strenuous,” Tweit said. “We usually limit our running on a hot day

like [Monday], but we limited it even more. We just had our runners

warm up, stretch and do a little running on the track. We had plenty

of water and allowed those who didn’t feel strong enough to continue

to stop running.”

Tim Parsel, the boys athletic director at Estancia High, said

Eagle cross country teams had a light jog, followed by a dip in the

pool. He said the school’s boys water polo team had an abbreviated,

half-speed workout.

Dick Freeman and Jeff Brinkley, football coaches at Corona del Mar

High and Newport Harbor, respectively, said their Monday practices,

usually less demanding anyway, included no running or conditioning.

Freeman said his players dressed in helmets, shorts and shoulder

pads, a change from a typical Monday workout in full pads.

Estancia football coach Craig Fertig said the ocean breezes that

usually blanket his school’s practice field would help limit air

quality concerns. He said, however, he “cut back a bit” from his

normal Monday regimen.

OCC women’s golf coach Barry Wallace said his athletes were

allowed to ride carts in their Orange Empire Conference match against

Santa Ana at River View Golf Club in Santa Ana Monday. Typically,

carts are not allowed in competition.

“The winds picked up and we got a little of the ocean breeze,

which was nice and made the air not so bad,” Wallace said after the

match. “We used carts as a precaution and I think that was a good

move.”