High school football still means a lot in Sacramento. But we’re still not close to normal
The start of the high school football season is here, at a stadium near you. It’s so close to kickoff time that I can anticipate the sweet scent of a barbecue, hear the drumline and sense the anticipation.
I am in my 32nd football fall with The Bee, grizzled and seasoned, and this season ranks as a must-have unlike any before. Games are much more than blocking and tackling and touchdown pursuits. They are a happening, a social epicenter for a campus or a community and the launch of the academic year. Football also marks the start of something memorable for players and coaches and those who support them and watch them.
Football at this level in this region comes with all the trappings of a good time: fans of all ages and walks of life, rooting sections with signs and chants, bands making music, cheerleaders and dance teams in rhythm, all serving as a backdrop to the action on the field.
“It’s America, and football and apple pie just works in this country, right on down to high school,” Monterey Trail coach T.J. Ewing said. “It’s the most competitive, most compassionate sport we have in our country. A high school game means everyone can get involved, every student, every fan, and everybody can have a play in it. I love it. It’s the best thing, and we all want to see normalcy. We need it.”
Ewing is great on big picture thinking as he captains a championship program in the Elk Grove Unified School District. We all strive for normal, but for any of us to suggest that we are anywhere close to a return normalcy is premature, and that’s the lingering cloud that hovers across the state. COVID-19 is still an issue, still the “dirty word,” as one area coach put it.
Go to any local campus and you will likely still see arrows painted on the concrete across the grounds to steer people one way or another, and to stay away from each other. They were painted to greet students last academic year, when they finally returned to campus after months of distance learning. The social-distance days are mostly over, but the reminders are there.
Trouble ahead for prep football
There was no 2020 fall season in California due to the pandemic. Shortened schedules were pushed into the spring months with some schools managing six games and others just one as game cancellations tied to player positive tests made for a maddening and chaotic stretch.
I dread writing this part, but you can expect this troubling trend to continue, to some degree. There will be positive tests at some schools because social distancing doesn’t work at this age. Masking helps but doesn’t necessarily prevent anything.
Folsom Cordova Unified considered testing student-athletes regularly for coronavirus this fall, then decided against it, and kudos to that. This isn’t to suggest that safety isn’t a priority, but enough is enough. The state of California paid for testing in the spring. That bill would now rest on the shoulders of each school and district, and there are no ATM machines dotted across the quad to cover costs, which could run in the thousands every week for a football program.
The Elk Grove district considered testing, eased up on the thought, and is now considering it again. Some sort of plan or no plan has to be locked in immediately, if not sooner. Freshmen games start Thursday and varsity starts on Friday.
Placer County schools are not testing. Same in El Dorado County and in Sacramento County. This is all subject to change, of course. Athletic directors are in regular contact with each other and their bosses and rival programs to gauge what is happening and what to do.
Coaches are conditioned to expect anything, especially the worst. Those that will test will have to be specific on how it will be done. If one player tests positive, does the entire team sit for 10 days to quarantine, or just the player who had a positive? And how will contact-tracing work?
Grant’s home opener against Lodi has been pushed back to Sept. 17 due to positive tests within the Lodi program. This is the norm from the spring that hovers.
Politics and prep sports. Groan ...
Politics have no place in prep sports but they muscled into the action this past academic year. Some insisted the governing body, California Interscholastic Federation, local sections and schools denied kids a chance to compete. Not so.
The CIF, the sections and school districts based COVID-19 decisions to delay seasons based on county and state health department input. Others blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom for the stalls and delays and are fired up to be heard for the looming recall vote. Some argued that it takes everyone to be on the same page to navigate through this maze, without finger pointing, without blame.
This much we do know: Aren’t sports supposed to unite everyone? Some teams are divided — coaches who want kids to vaccinate and kids whose parents insist that they will do no such thing. It’ll never work if infighting takes over.
What we do need is for everyone to be on the same page, everyone pulling on the same rope in the same direction. If a player has to mask up on the team bus to a big game, do it. If testing is required, and I feel the groan, then do it. Let’s not have high school football resemble the meltdown we see on airlines seemingly each week, with belittling and brawling tied to a face mask or perceived freedoms. Don’t debate freedoms. Debate touchdown drives and team rankings.
“I hate to sound political, but until we get a higher percentage of people getting vaccinated against COVID, we’re not going to get completely over this,” said Steve Thornton, the commissioner of the Sierra Foothill League, which includes teams from Placer, Sacramento and El Dorado counties. “We all hope and want high school sports to be relatively normal, without game cancellations due to positive tests. But we really don’t know. We do know that things can change and they can change really quickly.”
Some area players were against getting the vaccine, unsure of what the long-term effects might be. That’s fair. There are a lot of programs dealing with this. Players remain silent because they don’t want to be judged on social media or on their campus.
Will it ever get to the point where prep players will be required to to vaccinate to ensure their spot on the roster, much like college programs? We’ll see.
And there’s the other cloud over this season, also linked to unfortunate events: wildfire smoke. Expect to look at the AQI — Air Quality Index — for the coming weeks as fires continue to rage, clogging skies, and likely canceling practices and games.
Football changes lives, molds them. ‘Football saved me’
For now, there is rolling momentum. School is in session in most of the region, with the Sacramento City Unified School District to start Sept. 2. Students are required to mask up on campus, but that’s a small sacrifice, all things considered. Perspective is needed for those who argue against it. Colfax High includes students who are displaced, their homes reduced to charred rubble from the recent River Fire. The Falcons still endure poor air quality at practice and will embrace anything that feels normal.
For those attending or supporting kids and schools within El Dorado County, there is more anguish. El Dorado of Placerville coach Christian Mahaffey, four assistant coaches and at least 10 players had to evacuate their homes due to the Caldor Fire. They’re not thinking about games. They are thinking about where they’ll sleep this weekend.
The enthusiasm is just as pronounced at the largest, most high-profile programs, where the only issue at the moment is poor air quality.
“Football is here, school has started, our kids are excited, and it’s great to see kids on campus,” Folsom Bulldogs coach Paul Doherty said, adding, “We want to ensure that we get the full experience of high school fun, but we will remain vigilant. I’m hard on my players: Mask on in the classroom. Masks on in the weight room. Masks on if you’re going out to eat after practice. We are going to play as many games as we can with as many players as we can.”
This rings true in the suburbs and in the city, including Del Paso Heights, where the Grant Pacers have been a staple for decades.
“Football is everything here, the heart of the community,” Grant coach Carl Reed said. “Having anything close to normal is needed badly here and everywhere. Coming to practice, getting back on campus, getting back in class, and we’ll have precautions,but it’s good for morale. We need that.”
In Orangevale, at Casa Roble, coach Chris Horner has rallied his troops.
“Oh my goodness gracious, does football coming back change the way we all feel right now? Heck yes!” he said. “I’ve never been busier in my life. Everyday is putting out fires with the checklist of things that need to be done before this Friday night. It’s kind of surreal that in a matter of days, we are going to have a stadium filled with actual fans and not ones that are related to the players in an immediate family or same household capacity.
“Kids who’ve been attending school all week will have the opportunity to attend a social gathering and get to experience what high school football is really like. Hanging and talking with friends and just getting to be a kid is something they have missed for a really long time. It’s going to be nice to somewhat feel normal again. Fingers crossed that we can navigate this thing for the entire season. Tests, masks, social distancing - it doesn’t matter. Just tell us what we need to do and we are going to do it at Casa to ensure football happens in Orangevale. This community needs it”
Martin Billings said sports matter because they can shape young lives. He’s an example. The first-year Cosumnes Oaks coach in Elk Grove grew up in the Bay Area in the 1980s, where the allure of drug-dealing tempted or consumed a lot of people his age, even on his own campus.
“Football saved me,” Billings said. “I grew up at the height of the crack cocaine era, and there were guys walking around school with hundred-dollar bills, gold chains and girlfriends, and I was lucky to even get a soda. I didn’t want to be tempted. Football gave me structure. It gave me the weight room, the classroom, a future. I wanted to be somebody. Kids need mentorship in any era in any area. They need to learn from adults. That’s what we can do as teachers and coaches and adults: enlighten our youth.”
Casey Taylor can relate. He didn’t have a father growing up in El Dorado Hills in the 1980s. He needed sports to stay on the straight and narrow, and it led to a teaching and coaching career that included championship stops at Del Oro and Capital Christian. He has come full circle, preparing for his first year as head coach at his alma mater of Oak Ridge.
“These aren’t just football games,” Taylor said. “They’re community events, playing for a cause. That’s the most important thing for me right now: getting people back in the stands, kids having a good time, enjoying sports, and the smell of that barbecue.”
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.