Surf Soccer Club CEO reacts to judge’s decision to resume youth sports in San Diego

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – On Friday — hours after the state revised its guidelines to allow certain sports activities in counties with relatively low rates of new COVID-19 cases — San Diego Superior Court Judge Earl H. Maas III agreed with the plaintiffs in his written ruling that young athletes were not at greater risk of contracting or transmitting COVID-19 than their professional or collegiate counterparts.

Maas briefly referenced the new guidelines issued by the state, but wrote that “competent evidence was not provided to the court in this regard” at Friday’s hearing and thus he declined “to anticipate what the (state) `may’ do in the coming week.”

Surf Soccer Club CEO Brian Enge joined Good Morning San Diego to discuss the judges decision and getting kids back out to practice.

The state’s new standard allows for a resumption of “outdoor high- contact sports” in counties that reach an adjusted daily average of 14 new cases per 100,000 residents. San Diego County currently has a rate of 22.2 cases per 100,000 residents.

However, through the lawsuit filed by two San Diego-area high school athletes, Maas granted a temporary restraining order allowing high school and youth sports to resume in San Diego County “as long as the(y) follow the same or similar COVID-19 protocols imposed for competition in professional and/or collegiate sports within the county.”