(East Los Angeles, CA) December 7, 2020 [From The Editor’s Desk]: Actual and visual signs of high school football have finally surfaced on the streets of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles in the form of the Roosevelt Rough Riders Varsity Football team. We present this piece with a great photo gallery as shot by Bob Bernal, Jr.

The team can be seen as they began their first round of conditioning drills for the start of what is now being called Season 1 of the school year. Cleared by the CIF/LACS  Commissioner’s office, and working in conjunction and compliance with the State of California, and the L.A. County’s COVID-19 Health & Public Safety mandates, the Rough Riders are anxious to get their biological football “body-clocks” in sync for the start of the season currently “on hold.” Under present State of California/CIF policies, teams that have opted to play a seasonal sport, are permitted to start these types of practices. At the time of this writing, the season’s scheduled games are slated to begin in February.

Head Coach Aldo Parral, starting his third season at the helm of the Riders now-proven, and ascending program, informed us that the team is allowed to practice without footballs, helmets, and pads through the months of December and January, with the season hopefully, set to start in February. The team is currently on a Monday through Friday conditioning schedule that lasts from 4:10 pm to 5:10 pm. Coach Parral has the players doing the uphill running course just south of the school’s campus on 6th Street. They can also use the football field and the bleachers for drills.

Coach Parral also informed us that the main protocol of conducting the conditioning sessions is based on a (1) coach per every (12) players, known as “Pod” training. Student-athletes must also get all of the required “paperwork” completed in a timely manner, like all required CIF/L.A. City Section-LAUSD waivers and forms. And, all players must be tested for the virus once a week. When not on the field for conditioning drills, the team is receiving training via the ever-increasing, and popular Zoom program, designed for teachers and students.

(Photo Gallery Courtesy): Bob Bernal Jr.

Roosevelt Rough Rider's Head Coach, Aldo Parral, shown giving instructions to one of his players.

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To round out this story, we’d like to give you direct information as taken from both the State CIF and the L.A. City Section press releases. The next dates to check on your calendars will be sometime during the first week of the new year when the State CIF Central Office in Sacramento will announce its guidance on Season 1 competition. Then on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, or possibly sooner, they will announce if the Season 1 SoCal Regional & State Championships will be played. 

To read the Press Release from the State CIF Office, click here. To see the CIF/L.A. City Section statement form Commissioner, Vicky Lagos, click here.