'Why couldn't they wait?': 30 min before semifinal, top-seeded SF team forfeits due to coronavirus

Lowell High — which has won 23 consecutive girls soccer AAA league titles — is seen here in the 2018 league championship against George Washington High. Lowell cruised to the semifinals of CIF’s NorCals Soccer Championships this year with a first round shutout, and was set to host visiting Chico last Thursday. And then came the text during warmups. less Lowell High — which has won 23 consecutive girls soccer AAA league titles — is seen here in the 2018 league championship against George Washington High. Lowell cruised to the semifinals of CIF’s NorCals ... more Photo: Courtesy Of Dan Tan Photo: Courtesy Of Dan Tan Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close 'Why couldn't they wait?': 30 min before semifinal, top-seeded SF team forfeits due to coronavirus 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

"Right after it was happening, our first thought was, 'Who told the school to shut down? Who made that decision? Why couldn't they wait an hour and a half for us to play?'"

Hannah McCord is exasperated.

She’s disappointed.

She’s confused.

She’s angry.

A high school All-American for Lowell High School’s girls soccer team, McCord helped the team to its first-ever state title in 2018, led the team in goals on the way to back-to-back California Interscholastic Federation titles in 2019, and had top-seeded Lowell poised to make it an unprecedented three-peat in 2020.

San Francisco's Lowell — which has won 23 consecutive league titles — cruised to the semifinals of CIF’s NorCal Soccer Championships with a first round shutout, and was set to host visiting Chico last Thursday.

And then came the text during warmups.

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"The game time was 3 p.m. We got a text at 2:30 p.m. Coach pulled us into a huddle, said the school was closing down and we couldn’t play the game," McCord said.

SFUSD closed "out of an abundance of caution and for the safety and well-being of our community" after learning a student's relation to a coronavirus patient, according to a statement from the district.

"Then they sent students home on Muni an hour before school ends at 3:30 p.m.,” McCord said.

The Lowell girls soccer team, meanwhile, was left in tears on the field, both waiting for parents to show up, and waiting for answers.

“[Our head coach Amber Wilson] said hopefully we’ll be able to play this game tomorrow, or the next day even if that means driving up to Chico — of all the possibilities we talked about, none of them were forfeiting,” McCord said.

Chico High School, which made the 4-hour trip to San Francisco, had also started warmups and were brought into a team huddle of their own to discuss what seemed like a postponement.

"They did a ‘good luck’ cheer for us, then we did a ‘good luck’ cheer for them, and they went home," McCord said.

According to Renee Tan, mother of Lowell High senior Skylar Tan, the team found out about the forfeit Thursday evening on the CIF website.

"They were looking up the game online, and the website says [Chico] has a win and we have a forfeit — we didn’t necessarily know, that was a binding decision. But knowing what we know now, I’m gonna say that SFUSD did the right thing," said Tan, who was under the impression that the CIF was responsible for Lowell's forfeit. "California is under a state of emergency. I understand the protocol, the kind of fear of the unknown. You have to look into this in the grand scheme of things — we have people who are dying."

According to CIF official Rebecca Brutlag, however, Lowell’s game was initially postponed until Friday, March 6 to give the San Francisco Unified School District time to decide how to proceed.

"Ultimately the SFUSD withdrew Lowell the evening of March 5," Brutlag wrote in an email, something that wasn't shared with the team.

"It’s a worldwide pandemic," head coach Amber Wilson said via text. "A tough and important life lesson."

For McCord — who will go on to play Division I soccer at Megan Rapinoe’s alma mater, the University of Portland — the pill was still incredibly tough to swallow.

"The team we should have played went on to win the whole thing," McCord said. "It was just shocking. That was not in my plan. Not being able to finish what we felt so prepared to finish, it was just incredibly disappointing. It doesn’t feel like the end, it feels like I’ll come back this week and have another game, but that’s not what it is."

Lowell, which was closed from Thursday to Tuesday, is scheduled to reopen on Wednesday.

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Grant Marek is the Editorial Director of SFGATE. Email: grant.marek@sfgate.com | Twitter: @grant_marek