Panthers celebrate championship
Chico High girls team has ring ceremony at Lincoln Center
CHICO » Over nine months ago, the Chico High girls soccer team captured its first CIF NorCal championship.
On March 7, the Panthers topped crosstown rival Pleasant Valley High 5-1 at Asgard Yard.
But the tail end of the Panthers’ championship journey overlapped with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chico High’s NorCal semifinal game against Lowell of San Francisco actually ended with a forfeit after a positive coronavirus case popped up on the Lowell campus. It led to a Panthers’ victory but an abrupt exit from San Francisco.
Days and weeks after Chico High won the NorCal title, cancellations began to follow and its celebratory ceremony was delayed.
On Wednesday night, the Panthers were able to celebrate their championship season with a brief ring ceremony inside the Lincoln Center. Each player, wearing masks and seated six feet away from one another, were presented with a NorCal championship ring emblazoned with the Chico High logo. In the most 2020 fashion, the seniors from last year’s team who weren’t able to attend the ceremony in-person participated over Zoom.
“With all the seniors who are gone last year this is something we can all share with each other,” said now-senior Aisha Camara. “The chemistry between everybody never went away.”
It was the first bit of normalcy for the team to get together, said Panthers head coach Sarah Parker Moore. She had been keeping the rings at her home until she got the green light to safely host a ceremony.
“It’s normal. There’s been this unsettling, not normal feeling,” Moore said. “It felt really good getting them together. I think it’s really important that these girls get a chance to get together and celebrate something positive we worked hard for.”
For Karina Diaz, who scored 26 goals last season as a junior, having a tangible object to celebrate their championship season helped make it feel official.
“It’s good to finally see (the ring) in person. We’ve been waiting for this. Since the win, we’ve been riding that high,” said Karina Diaz. “It’s just really rewarding to finally get the ring.”
That Panthers squad finished the year 24- 4. The
championship game was one of the last contests to take place in the area before coronavirus shut down sports.
“it was one of those seasons that was fun and you didn’t want it to end,” Moore said.
Normally, the soccer season would be underway in December. But now, high school sports can’t begin until Jan. 25 after the latest youth sports guidelines released by the California Department of Public Health. The soccer season wouldn’t be allowed to start unless Butte County can move into the Orange Tier of the state’s
Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
“I’m really hoping for a season since it’s our senior year. I want to go out with a bang,” Diaz said.
Diaz, who has already committed to playing for Folsom College, said it had been difficult finding a school to play for after high school.
“It’s been rough,” Diaz said. “Honestly, as an athlete going into your senior year, hoping to find a school you want to go to after high school, it’s definitely hard.”