LJ baseball: Frank comments on the virus situation

Viking head coach Gary Frank (4) fist-bumps
his team members before the start of the
27th Annual Alumni Game March 15.
(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Friday the 13th, March 13, was a day full of announcements and emotion. School districts, including City Schools, announced that they were calling off classes at all schools for the next three weeks in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, the Coronavirus. That included all sports practices and games, as well.

La Jolla High baseball coach Gary Frank was asked for comment.

"It's an unfortunate situation for everyone involved world-wide," said the 17th-year head coach. "We would love to be able to continue our season uninterrupted, but sometimes life has a way of getting in the way of our best-laid plans.

"We are just hoping," continued Frank, "that things settle down in the next couple weeks and we are permitted to finish our season."

The NCAA announced that all winter and spring sports would be cancelled. That included basketball March Madness, and the entire baseball season and College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

Said Frank, "It would be a shame for our 11 seniors to finish their high school career after only seven games this year. We understand that there are many things in life bigger than sports, and we just hope that they can somehow get the virus under control and keep everyone healthy."

The head coach, an alumnus of LJHS who held the annual Alumni Game only weeks earlier in an early start to the baseball season due to rearrangement to allow for state playoffs in sports, was asked about his players keeping their conditioning without formal practice.

Will right-handed pitcher Koa Scott, for example, continue to throw?

"Yes. Koa has a private pitching coach, so he'll keep getting his work. (Lefty) Hobie (Hood) will continue to get his work in. I'm sure Gavin (Graff) as well.

"Hopefully, they will all be going to the cages on their own."

To conclude, Frank said, "We can't practice or play for at least three weeks, and I am going to encourage them to keep working on their own."