 You're tuned into the COVID-19 community report here on KDRT LP, 95.7 FM in Davis, California. I'm Autumn LaBea Renau and today is Tuesday, January 12, 2021. We're sharing local news and resources focusing on what's impacting Davis and nearby cities in Yolo County during the COVID-19 pandemic. My goal with this show since starting it 10 months ago was to help weave a narrative about how deeply and broadly the pandemic has impacted local lives here in Yolo County. In the course of those 10 months I've talked to scientists, elected officials, medical personnel, teachers, students, arts and culture organizations, and community leaders among others. And as we approach episode 50, I'm astounded at how many stories there are still to tell. Today's a good example. My guests today are Bruce Gallaudet, sports editor for the Davis Enterprise, and Joel Rappaport, who's coordinating the Davis Independent Music Initiative. Sports and music are two areas that have experienced tremendous impact during this time. We'll get to those interviews in just a few minutes. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of James Glicka Hernandez this Sunday due to complications related to COVID. James was an important figure in local theater circles and a staunch advocate for the mentally ill in Yolo County. DMA's team recently had the opportunity to work with him on an event in support of Pine Tree Gardens. We send our love and care out to his husband, David, and the rest of their family and community. It is a weird thing to read COVID statistics each week and realize we're at the point where people I know are part of those numbers. I had my own scare last week when someone inadvertently exposed me and then tested positive. I'm fine with a negative test result but remain sequestered, and I'm recording this week's show from home. My thanks to fellow catered DJ Don Shore for offering to edit it together for me. This free testing for the COVID-19 virus via Healthy Davis Together this month is available seven days a week at two locations. The Davis Senior Center at 645 A Street in Davis and the Mondabi Center at 523 Mrakall Drive on the UC Davis campus. This free testing is offered to anyone who lives or works in Davis, but is limited to asymptomatic individuals only. For more information, including testing times, dates and appointments, visit Healthy Davis Together dot org slash testing. Healthy Davis Together is a joint project between the City of Davis and UC Davis with a goal to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and facilitate a coordinated and gradual return to regular city activities and reintegration of UC Davis students back into the Davis community. For students outside of Davis, find the county's free testing site info and much more at Yolo County dot org. This is where you can also find the dashboards with case numbers and test positivity rates for all areas within Yolo County. And it will tell you such things as we had 90 new cases reported on Saturday alone, and are rapidly moving towards the 10,000 case mark countywide. So we're going to take a minute for music and we'll be right back with Bruce Gallaudet. Few things get people's passions up like sports parents and coaches want their kids to play for the team building, the discipline and the peer development, and people love to watch games developing identity and investment in favorite teams. It's not called America's pastime for nothing. I must say that cardboard cutouts in the stands isn't quite the same and a year without sports has left people somewhat on edge. This past Saturday, Davis police had to break up a fight involving some of the parents at a large youth football gathering in community park with over 100 participants including parents coaches and players they've been practicing in community for several days. After having been given warnings regarding distancing protocols required mask wearing etc. The police were called in, and the crowd was dispersed. My first guest today is known for his longtime association with local newspaper, the Davis Enterprise, where he's currently sports editor in a year without sports here to tell us more as Bruce Gallaudet thanks so much for joining us Bruce. It's totally my pleasure. Thanks. So in the normal year of the life of a sports editor, you'd be covering everything from preseason practice to club sports to Little League to UC Davis football and as we know, these are not normal times we're at the fist fights in the park stage. That was a surprising bit of news from the weekend. From your perspective regarding sports, what's been the biggest challenge as you've watched the pandemic unfold. So, from a personal standpoint, trying to trying to give the correct feel for how the athletes and coaches are dealing with all of this it is. It is a tough time for any student athlete, whether it be at UC Davis or Davis High School. But, you know that all of these kids are out there because they're passionate about what they're doing. And the coaches are there because they're passionate about what they're doing. But nobody's playing sports right now. And, and the the future changes by the minute. For example with the UC Davis basketball program. Their season was originally delayed postponed from the beginning of November back to the 25th. Then the UC Davis women and men played games that first weekend and have not played since December 4 because of edicts by the state and the Yolo County Health Department. And each week they think that they're going to play the following weekend. And since early December word has come by midweek that you have to cancel your games. So that emotional roller coaster for the student athletes and the coaches that are so invested in these seasons is just totally mentally taxing. The university also has had five fall sports canceled because of because of league deciding to scrap sports. And then high school has not played a sanctioned contest since I think it's the 14th of March last part. So they're almost a year into being on hold. And they also have faced several postponements as the high school. And right now they have their fingers crossed that there will be three seasons jammed into two between now in the middle of June. But it's with the county like most counties in California sitting in the most restrictive purple tier of the road to recovery as it's called. It would be a full three weeks before regular practices can be held at the high school too. So the bottom line is that at UC Davis and at Davis High School what were fall sports have become winter and spring sports and those winter and spring normal sports are seeing truncated seasons being planned. But the numbers are prohibitive and those seasons in their entirety those seasons on both campuses are right now in jeopardy of being played again. You know, a few months ago I interviewed Karen Motokaitis who's one of the long term swim coaches here in town. And one of her concerns is that as sports opportunities evaporate in high school that there's been a big trickle down if you will in that those opportunities are also drying up at the college campus. And so many kids who counted on those sports scholarships and things to get them by there they're not going to see those opportunities moving forward. And so she said that actually in sports we're going to be feeling this impact far longer than in in some other areas for this reason. Thanks for making it even more depressing than it is. I'm a realist Bruce. Yeah, and as is Karen and she's exactly right. I was going to mention when we got around high school that that there's two things here I feel bad for the, the university student athletes but the NC to a has said back in November that because of COVID college athletes nationwide will get an extra year of eligibility. So if you're a senior at UC Davis, you can you can come back as a graduate student or change up your workload to have you qualify to come back as a senior plus one. That doesn't happen in high school. For example, both the basketball programs and football programs and baseball programs at Davis High, the majors have outstanding senior athletes that are on hold. And some of those athletes were hoping that their seasons would be in full bloom, and that they would be getting noticed by college recruiters. Yeah, that's not happening. And they don't have any recourse they can't stick around for an extra year they're going to graduate. That's not virtually again, but it looks like that. And so they're just there. It's a lost season and a lost opportunity. Meanwhile, at the colleges like I just mentioned, you've got student athletes that are sticking around an extra year so potential spots that would have been filled for the half of the graduating seniors. Some of those spots. A lot of those spots aren't going to be there for incoming recruits. The other thing that's centering into this, especially at the college level is how much of the pandemic and the lack of action and the lack of sponsorship and the lack of gate. Can the budgets take. Kevin blue who was who left UC Davis couple of weeks ago was brilliant in all regards, and one of his special abilities was keeping a solid eye on the budget in a budget that can reach $41 million a year now. Blue told me before he left that he expected for this fiscal year, which runs through the end of the sport season in June. And that there was going to be about a $2 million shortfall. And that there were other avenues in which that shortfall was going to be made up. So it wasn't at this point to the point like some other schools like Stanford and a couple of major schools in the Midwest. Were set citing co vid and and lack of auxiliary income to cut a myriad number of sports. I think it was six that Stanford just cut partially because of the pandemic partially because they were overloaded for a school of 8500. But there, there's a lot of other schools that are going to see it and it's not, it's not just a simple case of cutting a sport, because it doesn't make any money. If you have a woman sport. And I apologize to UCD for saying this there's no implication here. It's a woman sport like field hockey, for example, and you find that that the returns on that aren't equal to the investment, and you decide that in this pandemic you have to cut that. That's one thing. The second consideration is are you still in compliance with equal opportunity under title nine. If you're not, then all of a sudden maybe a deserving men's sport or reverse it maybe a men's sports going to get cut and you're out of compliance with title nine the other way. You got to consider that and if you cut one, you better even it out. I apologize. You're not in compliance with title nine. I'm just happy that I'm in newspapers and not in university, athletic administration because this second shoe hasn't dropped yet. Yeah, UC Davis and many other physically responsible universities aren't going to see the big impact of the pandemic yet. But then when you get into subsequent years and you've gone fully 18 months, for example, without any appreciable income, then you know who knows what's going to happen. Everything else in this pandemic, I mean sports are tied to so much you mentioned revenue from gate but there's a whole in professional sports certainly there's a whole industry of people who you know work the venues and and all of that has been, you know, disrupted. And you mentioned Kevin blue he was athletic director for UC Davis for the past four years. And I have to wonder if if you know what kind of hurry Davis is in to replace that position at at the moment they may, you know they may feel like they have a little extra time for that search I'm not sure. They, they have convened a search committee hired a search firm from the Midwest, and are expected to have three viable candidates passed along to Chancellor may sometime in March. They're expected to the Chancellor to name the replacement I think they'll move fairly quickly on this because, although they have solid people in place like interim athletic director Rocco DeLuca has been a cog in the, the fundraising for UC Davis and for marketing the UC Davis brand in the time that he's been here in Davis it was a brilliant hire and a guy that certainly is up to the task whether it's interim is his title suggest now or if it's long term. But it can't be. It's, it's the key position to making sure that Davis still had the UC Davis still has all the right rooms. Yeah, okay. Before we run out of room and run out of time in a few minutes here. What are you hearing from, you know, high school coaches and high school athletes. What is the general feeling or sentiment out there about what this past year has been like a big frustration on on both of their parts. The student athletes and the coaches, but the lucky thing it about being involved with Davis High School is that the athletic and overall administration are solid Tom McHale as principal and and maybe not maybe what one of the top athletic directors prep athletic directors in the nation in Jeff Lorenzen or at Davis High have 27 different varsity programs running at use at Davis High School. It's impressive. It's, it's beyond the can of imagination I don't know of another school in the US that has 27 teams. And the coaches that are on staff there are a majority of the coaches or veteran coaches, the coaches are all about the kids and, for example, like, like water polo coaches. And, and right and and track coach Spencer Elliott and football coach Steve smite. It's all about the kids it's all about their psyche and it's all about understanding that this too shall pass but if you have a missed opportunity you know there will be others and keep your head up and it's just totally impressive Dan Gonzalez in basketball has been there for 650 years and he's just he's another role model that parents and the student athletes can get behind so. Davis High with their athletic staff and is just totally blessed but it's, like I said before, my heart goes out to the kids in high school that are missing seasons that they can't make up and through that they're missing opportunities with next level schools that otherwise might have seen them. Yeah. Well Bruce we are out of time I want to thank you so much for joining us here today on the 19 community report, and let's have you back in in a few months down the road is and we'll see where we are with things and check in okay. I appreciate it thanks for the work you do with your program it's awesome. Great thanks so much. Thanks. The tagline of bettering music in and from Davis California the Davis independent music initiative is an emerging arts organization aimed at helping musicians to better and further their artistic careers. Joel Daniel heads up the effort and is with us today thanks for joining us Joel. Yeah, I don't think so much for having me bet. So, so tell us more how and why did this effort start and what are the goals. It started. It's the idea for the Davis independent music initiative which I called dimmy started to percolate in my mind in early 2019. And I had just gotten through with working with the city on a bike safety video, and they asked if we could produce something educational in that realm with a video series that I produce called Hoot quarters related to a children's music in. And around that same time I had been writing my first set of solo by myself grown up song grown up songs which I say to differentiate from the kids music. And I just felt like it started to realize I've been in Davis a really long time and all the musicians I know just about since going back to 98 are gone. And my rents were also going up pretty drastically. And there were, you know, further, less and less fewer and fewer venues to play in and I just thought you know, you know the city is interested in cultivating art. And if we could just, if I could think of a way to build something that could last over a period of years. And also being in a position where I was a musician that had been here longer than most that would be a good thing to try to start. Right. So, what I came up with was the proposal for dimmy, which was, I said, look, Davis, I'm a musician I've been here a long time I'm writing these songs and I know how to make a record at every step because I've done it. And so I said, give me $5,000, which was the most I could ask for under the grant I was writing and in return, you know, when this is done, there will be new music that comes from this I will play the show live I will host it on a site where the community can listen to this new music for free. Every show that I play in support of this I will say Davis cal from Davis, California. And also, I'll teach some classes on, you know, writing music producing music and marketing and promotion so that other musicians in town that might not have the experience that I've been lucky enough to have, can start to learn about these things on a deeper level. And then, and then Yeah, yeah. This was the most important part which is that don't give me the money unless you would be willing to give it to somebody else the following year, and somebody else the following year so that we can start to build something from the ground up so that in 10 years, we can all go on Spotify, or maybe it will be Elon Musk's neuro link that we all have in our brains by then, and we can just listen to these, all this new music that has come from our town. And all these musicians will be out in the world saying, and yeah, I'm from Davis California Davis is awesome and you should come there. Yeah, and of course as I said the pandemic struck and one of the things that's happened is the arts grants funding and Davis was eliminated. Last year and we're looking at it probably another year without that. So, in that interim, you know musicians have have taken a really hard blow beyond rising rants and and all of that and lack of venues now there are no venues available. No, no restaurants that they can play in no community gatherings and so so I do realize it's been really hard. We have such a we have just a couple of minutes together so let's get into the, you've done a weekly song doctor for for a while during the pandemic where people can upload songs, get share them get critiqued. And so you've got this virtual community going on, but now you do have some money to give away so tell us about that. Yeah, so we have the talks didn't happen, but we have been hosting the song doctor and I did ask the city to keep this going and while they have a limited budget this year they did allocate $6500 to dimmy. And we've created a committee and now that money will go to a musician, a band or musician from Davis this year. And we have a website. www.davisimi.com and the application is there it's due March 1 2021. And yeah I'm just very excited that there will be that this is going to be a springboard for somebody else to make something new from our town. You know that's really cool because that that's an actual chunk of change it's not like here's $1000 try to do something with it or here's to $6500 this is enough to get, you know a little studio time, a little marketing help whatever it is that they most need so it's very very cool. Let's give the website again because it is not dimmy and I want to make sure people can get there. Yeah, so it's, it's Davis, which is the Davis part of dimmy I letter I letter m letter I so Davis letter I letter m letter I.com. All right. Hey Joel, I'm sorry we have such a short time but thanks so much for joining me today and I'm going to keep sharing this info up until the applications are due. And we'll share it out through DMA and catered in a variety of ways and hopefully we'll reach the right people. Awesome thank you so much. All right, you have been listening to the COVID-19 community report here on KDRT 95.7 FM in Davis, California. Thanks for tuning in.