Friday’s games smoked out
‘They looked like we canceled Christmas on them’
If it’s not one thing, it’s another, as Lodi High football coach George Duenas said in the week leading up to his team’s scheduled opener.
He was reacting to that game against Grant High in Sacramento being canceled due to COVID-19 symptoms among a few of his players, and mandatory quarantine for exposure for much of the rest. On Friday, Lodi football had its second straight game canceled, along with most other schools in the area, due to unhealthy air quality.
Around mid-afternoon on Friday, the particulate matter (PM) concentration in Lodi hit 2.5, or five times the World Health Organization’s exposure recommendation, triggering cancellations for Lodi Unified. Many other schools in the area from Sacramento to Modesto had similar thresholds crossed, causing canceled games.
A little after 1 p.m., Lodi athletic director Robert Winterhalter said cancellations would trigger at AQI Level 5, and Lodi was at Level 3. About two hours later, the level was at 5.
Both Lodi’s football game vs. McNair and Tokay’s game at Bear Creek were canceled, along with the Lodi Flame Invitational, a race that brought 25 teams to Lodi Lake.
Lodi and Tokay were working Friday night to reschedule the football games for Monday. Duenas tried to put things in perspective on Friday.
“You know, hey, we’re trying to reschedule it,” Duenas said. “Big picture, people are losing homes, losing family, losing lives, so hopefully that gets over soon.”
Liberty Ranch and Natomas, scheduled to play at the school north of Sacramento, waited until after 5 p.m. on Friday to decide on the game. In the end, the game was called off, with Hawks coach Anthony Linebaugh saying administrators were attempting to reschedule it for Monday.
Galt was scheduled to play at Summerville High School in Tuolumne, east of Sonora, but at the time the Warriors were supposed to board the buses on Friday afternoon, Galt coach Tim Cobleigh said the AQI in Tuolumne was at 270 — more than 100 above the threshold considered to be unhealthy.
Cobleigh said Summerville is now — very tentatively — planning to come to
Galt today, for a junior-varsity game at 10 a.m. and a varsity game at 12:15 p.m.
“Our administration and their administration really put their heads together to put it all together,” Cobleigh said. “I know the boys were super disappointed, they looked like we canceled Christmas on them. But we had a team meeting and discussed what the plan was.”
Lodi cross country coach Dylan Silva had Lodi Lake Park filling up with runners when the AQI level hit 5. He had to break the news to 25 teams worth of coaches and runners that the event was canceled.
“At 2:30 we were right at 5, and we had a coaches meeting to let everyone know what was going on,” Silva said. “We said we would wait until the 3 o’clock reading comes in, but it kept going up even more, so we had to cancel, unfortunately.”
But for a silver lining, Thomas Valles, who was portrayed by Carlos Pratts in the 2015 movie McFarland USA, was on hand to see the Flame Invitational. With the race canceled, Valles, who is now a motivational speaker, became the center of attention.
“He reached out a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been in contact with him and asked if he wanted to come out and see one of our meets,” Silva said. “So he’s out here right now, the kids are taking pictures, asking him questions, so we’re still getting something out of it. We’re making the best out of the situation.”