LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s largest youth sports organization is preparing to return to play in a new season that will include rigorous requirements to protect players, coaches and the public.

The Konocti Youth Soccer League is gearing up to roll out its fall soccer season, said Board President Wayne Yahnke.

The league normally registers about 700 players each year and recently expanded to include competitive soccer. “And then COVID struck,” said Yahnke.

Despite the challenges and temporary reduction in numbers due to the pandemic, Yahnke said the organization is growing and its members are excited about it.

Getting the league reopened has been no small task, he explained.

Yahnke said the league has worked hard to stay on top of best practice and has reviewed an estimated 100 pages of health recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of California and leading youth sports organizations.

The league board met on Monday night and approved its plan to move forward, Yahnke said.

The plan includes a phased-in return to play with social distancing and smaller team sizes, specifically, no more than 10 players and coaches per cohort.

They hope that as the phases progress through the season they’ll get to do more training. “That’s down the road and we’re not sure that we will actually get to that point,” he said.

Yahnke said they’re also working with the county and the city of Lakeport to meet the requirements to reserve playing fields.

They’ve invested heavily in hand hygiene stations and are creating unique layouts for fields, including hash marks on the field perimeters to denote where people can stand to adhere to social distancing or where children can place equipment, he said.

In addition, Yahnke said the league has found a practice-based curriculum that implements training with social distancing in mind which will be implemented for the coaching staff.

He said the league will issue a soccer ball to every player that they’ll get to keep, which meets the Public Health requirements for no shared equipment.

They also will have drop off and pick up zones for players, Yahnke said.

“It’s definitely going to look different than it has in the past,” he said.

However, Yahnke explained, “The board sees it as an important challenge to meet,” to bring back some sort of normalcy while providing a healthy atmosphere for young athletes.

Yahnke said the league has extended the registration deadline by almost six weeks, to July 16.

The registration cost also has been reduced to $60, he said.

The league is finalizing the reservation process which Yahnke said will be on its website within the week.

He said the website also will be updated with a COVID-19 information tab.

For more information, visit the website or call the Konocti Youth Soccer League at 800-853-5975 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.