Amid evacuations and smokey air, El Dorado High football team shows its strength
As soon as Thursday night’s high school football game ended, Valley coach Ellis Jenkins headed over to the El Dorado team and asked if they’d join his crew for a prayer.
Sixteen members of the El Dorado Cougars team have been evacuated from their homes for weeks as the Caldor FIre wreaks havoc in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The Cougars thumped the Vikings 49-0 in a game that was called off midway through the fourth quarter, but none of that really mattered to Jenkins. He prayed with the Cougars for their families, to keep them safe and return them to their homes.
“Life is life,” Jenkins said after the prayer. “We’re all going through so much, COVID and now you get the games canceled because of air quality. All these kids are coming off the pandemic scare and now they’re evacuated, so win, lose or draw, just getting them back to their homes and community, that’s all that is.”
El Dorado coach Christian Mahaffey would love to go home. He’s been staying at his wife’s aunt’s house in Folsom. His son, starting quarterback Anthony Mahaffey, is staying with another aunt in Orangevale.
When Christian Mahaffey met with his players after the game, he didn’t talk about the usual stars of the game or things they need to work on. He talked hopefully about everybody being allowed to return home Friday if mandatory evacuation orders are lifted.
On the field, there were no glaring signs the 2-0 Cougars are struggling. They went 80 yards in five plays on the opening drive and allowed just one Valley first down in the first half. Running back Giovanni Pifferini scored a pair of rushing touchdowns as six different Cougars scored in the win.
“It’s amazing,” Mahaffey said. “The kids are better than the adults. I was hoping to get the call to go back, most of us didn’t. I’m hoping that call comes tomorrow. I’m ready to get home. But these are tough kids. We cut our practices down to an hour a day. They just want to go out and play.”
None of the El Dorado players lost a home in the blaze, but they’ve all lost something. The smoke in Placerville has been suffocating. Asked if it was weird that the Cougars had a victory simply because they were able to play a game, Pifferini, a senior captain, said nodded enthusiastically.
“The smoke cleared up this week so we were able to practice outside,” he said. “It’s weird to say we were finally able to practice on a football field. ...
“All our evacuated teammates have been really strong through this. ... Our teammates have been sticking it out and making it work, especially in practice, they’ve been showing up and giving it their best.”
Their best was plenty for the Vikings to deal with. Ellis said he was happy with the play of sophomore lineman Ziggy Hall, a hulking presence who slowed the El Dorado defense. The Vikings are young and Ellis said he knew the Cougars were going to be formidable, even with weeks of strange, short practices and questions about whether they’ll be able to play.
“One thing I told my kids all week,” he said, “film tells one thing but they’re gonna be strong and they showed that today.”
They’ve been showing strength for weeks, in more ways than one.