Episode 8: Let Them Play CA Movement & the Return of Youth/High School Sports in California
In today’s episode, I discuss a rapidly growing movement in the state of California regarding the re-opening of youth and high school sports. On Friday, February 19, 2021, CA Governor Gavin Newsom announced updated guidelines allowing the return of youth sports in counties with Covid-19 case rates at or below 14 people per 100k. In the first segment, I detail how the Let Them Play CA movement played a pivotal role in Newsom allowing youth sports to resume, but they may have played a role in growing Anti-Newsom efforts in California as well.
In the second segment, I welcome my good Friend Mike O to the podcast; co-host of the Sci and Tell Show Podcast! Mike is also a JV baseball coach and Math teacher in Southern California. I will be asking Mike about the process of starting their baseball season and how he’s been managing on and off the field during the pandemic with his students.
Lastly, I detail how the movement gained even more momentum when on February 11th, 2021, Let Them Play CA co-founder Brad Hensley, coaches, student-athletes, and parents from all over CA, held a protest rally outside the California State Capitol in Sacramento. They wanted their voices heard and called for the return of youth sports in CA. However, they were not alone in protesting at the Capitol that Thursday.
The #RecallNewsom and #ReopnSchoolsNow movement also held their own protest rally at the State Capitol. Among the chants of "Let Them Play" by student-athletes, parents, and coaches, were chants of "Recall Newsom! #Recall Gavin! and Reopen Schools! The Let Them Play CA movement was now entangled with the Pro-Recall Governor Newsom and Reopen Schools movement, and likely boosted the Recall Newsom and Reopen school movement’s momentum. This, in spite of the group’s leaders’ efforts to stay clear from those two movements.
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Miguel Garcia produced this episode. The Sports As A Weapon Podcast is part of the @Anticonquista Media Collective. Subscribe to the ANTICONQUISTA Patreon and follow ANTICONQUISTA on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok!
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