Paradise lost? Butte County football team survived Camp Fire to go 11-0 now hit with suspensions
Every so often, a football team and a town are inspired to achieve, motivated by profound loss.
In the early 1980s, Cordova and Placer players were floored by the car-crash deaths of a beloved teammate.
Teenagers attended funerals in shirts and ties, amid tears and clenched fists of anguish. Those student-athletes channeled those emotions into championship seasons.
And losing an entire region? People, buildings, acreage, trees and all, where there’s virtually nothing left but charred memories? That’s what has gripped the Paradise High School football team.
A year ago, the Bobcats stood 8-2 and were top-seeded in the Northern Section playoffs. But Paradise coaches and administrators had to painfully decline a postseason invitation because the Camp Fire was in the midst of leveling their comfort zone. Homes were lost. Lives were lost.
Who could think of playing football when players couldn’t find their shoulder pads or cleats while grief-stricken wondering where family and friends were amid the ashes and ruins of the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history?
Fast forward to now.
Paradise moved to 11-0 last week after ripping through Live Oak of Sutter County in a Division III contest. An overflow crowd stuffed into their Om Wraith Field stadium spots, seating capacity of 2,500, give or take a few more sitting on laps and shoulders. The Bobcats advanced to Friday’s section semifinal at 11-0 West Valley of Cottonwood of Shasta County.
Said Paradise coach Rick Prinz after the game, “It’s on now. We’ve got to be ready.”
Now more chaos and confusion engulfs the program just when normalcy and good cheer had become the norm.
Because of a skirmish during the Live Oak contest, the CIF Northern Section office informed Paradise officials Tuesday afternoon that six starters will not be allowed to suit up against West Valley.
Per CIF rules, anyone ejected from a game must sit out the following contest. Anyone leaving the bench to even try to help infuse calm is also suspended for the next game. It doesn’t seem fair sometimes – the “punishment doesn’t fit the crime” issue – but these are bylaws created by section schools across the state and voted into place. I prefer the human element of decency here, but we don’t have a vote, just a voice.
Through an appeals process, the Northern Section and its commissioner Elizabeth Kyle will hear Paradise’s plea on Thursday at 3 p.m., and it will be a heartfelt one.
What irks Paradise is its claim that Live Oak’s Tony Salazar was twisting the head of running back Lukas Hartley after a play. Bobcats players raced in to his defense. Jose Valesquez of Paradise had his helmet yanked off and was ejected for mixing it up in retaliation. Paradise players Caleb Bass, Elijah Gould, Angel Lopez and Julian Lopez are – for now – suspended for leaving the bench to pull teammates away from the scrum.
It’s a similar situation to a chaotic Elk Grove playoff opener in the Sac-Joaquin Section.
For Paradise, the plea will be for empathy and compassion, of brothers standing by each other and protecting one another as they have done since this time last year. Football and each other is what they all have, say coaches and players.
“We lost a lot, everything, but not each other,” said Hartley, a Paradise senior who rushed for 118 yards and tow touchdowns Friday.
No players or coaches lost their lives in the fire that engulfed some 19,000 structures. Only three current players live in Paradise. A good many are still so torn by it all that nearly half of the team’s 39 players declined to go to school on the one-year anniversary of the fire.
If Paradise can overcome last year, it can overcome this. Players and coaches are numb to a lot of things now. But in my 31 years doing the regional beat for The Bee, I cannot recall any more than a couple of appeals that went in favor of the school appealing. The appeals committee has a human element here to consider, and it has to decide whether or not that outweighs a bylaw sections are supposed to enforce.
Paradise Unified School District Superintendent Michelle John in an email to media wrote in part, “After viewing the film several times, I disagree with the sanctions imposed by CIF and support PHS filing an appeal. PHS varsity football players literally ran for their lives last November. They lost their homes and all of their belongings. The players hung on to their coaches and each other to help get them through this tragedy.”
Paradise has coaches and teams pulling for them in the Sacramento region, including Casa Roble coach Chris Horner. He took his team to Paradise last fall to visit with players, and friendships were formed. Casa Roble scrimmaged Paradise in Butte County in August.
“To begin the season without a league or a division since nobody thought they’d have a team, they’re playing hungry,” Horner said. “I can only imagine the type of bond that has formed by the boys of Paradise. They’re a group of down-to-Earth people who went through a truly horrific event. I feel so privileged and thankful that they let us into their lives.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 1:44 PM.