NCS extends football regular season by one week because of Kincade Fire

The North Coast Section will extend its football regular season by one week to allow teams unable to play this weekend because of the Kincade Fire in the North Bay to complete their schedules, the section announced Wednesday.

The regular season will now end Nov. 8-9, with the seeding meeting Nov. 10.

The playoffs will start Nov. 15-16, with now no bye week between the section finals and the regional championships Dec. 6-7.

“We have all been affected in some way over the past week by the recent events associated with the Kincade Fire and the PG&E power outages,” NCS commissioner Pat Cruickshank wrote in a letter to member schools. “Towns and areas have evacuated, homes have been lost, large parts of our region have little or no power, and the air quality continues to diminish.

“It is with all students and schools in mind that the North Coast Section has decided to extend the regular season in football for an additional week. This would mean that any games that cannot be played this coming weekend, Nov. 1st & 2nd, can now be played next week with the last possible play date being November 9th.

“This will allow schools to play their final regular-season game, many of which are rivalry games or league championships, and still give the North Coast Section three playable weekends to complete the playoffs and determine champions.”

The commissioner added, “In addition, we have looked at the sports of fall soccer and water polo, which end this coming weekend, and after speaking with affected leagues we have decided to move forward with these sports as originally scheduled. The final date of play for those two sports will remain November 2nd, with seeding taking place on November 3rd.”

This marks the third consecutive fall season that NCS schools have adjusted schedules because of fires, poor air quality or heat.

The section stretches from the East Bay to the Oregon border.

The decision Wednesday comes a little more than a year after then-NCS commissioner Gil Lemmon called the weeks of rescheduling “unprecedented” for the section.

The Camp Fire near Chico caused nearly a month of football postponements in the greater Bay Area last year because of poor air, leaving teams in the NCS with a difficult decision: finish the section playoffs with no advancement to a state regional or put state championship dreams in the hands of a coin flip.

Most chose to finish the section playoffs.