With season on line, Utah calls
Former Las Lomas High star heads to Park City to boost college chances
Some standout high school football players have their dreams of playing college football sealed by the time they finish their junior year.
Many more, like Troy dela Vega, feel they need a senior year to boost their college options.
“I was one of those bubble kids that needed senior film,” said Troy, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound tight end and defensive lineman from Walnut Creek and Las Lomas High School.
That’s why Troy and his family find themselves in Park City, Utah, this fall. Utah is one of just a handful of states in the western United States that has not put high school football on pause during the coronavirus pandemic.
The dela Vega family left Walnut Creek for Park City soon after
the California Interscholastic Federation called off the fall football season.
With the pandemic-related death total at more than 13,000 in California and 186,000 in the nation, the Golden State’s high school sports governing body decided to delay fall sports until at least January, hoping for less spread and more testing resources by the new year.
The family realizes the decision is controversial. Troy’s mom, Nicole dela Vega — quick to state that she’s a Democrat — said the family’s move came down to a belief that her kids’ physical health risks were outweighed by the potential mental health effects of isolation.
“As I learned more and researched more, I felt more comfortable with at least their age group being able to see each other,” she said. “For teenagers and even my middle schooler, it was really rough to be so isolated.
We slowly let him start to practice.”
She said her concerns about the virus bordered on paranoia at first but have lessened in recent months.
“When we first quarantined, I was really strict about letting Troy and the kids go anywhere because we didn’t know anything about it,” she said. “It looked pretty devastating in China and Italy.
“I’m not a nonbeliever in the coronavirus” she added. “I definitely believe we should take the precautions, be as careful as we can be while we’re trying to live our lives with it, while we try to find a solution if there is one.”
Troy wasn’t going to give up his senior year of football without a fight — even if it meant going somewhere else to play.
Conversations with family friends in a state where football would be played in the fall got him thinking.
“When I talked to my friends and found out that Utah was playing, they said that Park City was a great place to come, and they actually had a great football team,” he said.
The Park City Miners were the runners-up in Utah’s 4A division in 2019, losing in the state championship game.
The transition has been pretty smooth for the California kid. Even though the Miners are off to a 1-2 start, Park City coach Josh Montzingo said the newcomer made an immediate impression with a touchdown catch against rival Wasatch High in the season opener.
“He went up and highpointed the ball and took it away from four or five guys,” Montzingo said.
Touchdown catches might bring a familiar feeling, but looking up at the stands does not; only 25% of the usual attendance number is allowed. The sidelines are another strange sight; players and coaches stand apart to provide social distancing.
Park City High, the only high school in a ski resort community about 40 minutes from Salt Lake City, purchased plastic masks to attach to players’ face
masks to block the inevitable particles of sweat and saliva. Players use those or neck gaiters as masks.
Despite those measures, coronavirus outbreaks have forced several teams to quarantine and even cancel games in a few instances.
So far there has been no outbreak among the Miners. The dela Vegas say Park City residents appear to be wearing masks a little more than the folks they saw around town in Walnut Creek.
Nicole dela Vega and her husband, Ron — he’s been traveling back and forth to the Bay Area for work since the move — are happy that Troy is getting a better shot at a college scholarship.
Troy said he has received offers from Colby College in Maine and Valparaiso University in Indiana since the move, in addition to an offer from the University of San Diego he received this spring.
His mom said he has been in contact with some Ivy League schools, too.
Troy has stayed in contact with his former Las Lomas teammates. His friends have been streaming his games online while they await the fate of their own high school football season.
“It’s like I’m on both teams still,” Troy said.
Las Lomas coach Doug Longero, who is preparing for small-group drills, said there were no hard feelings about Troy’s decision: “People are going to make their choices. … I get it, it was a family thing for them.”
While CIF rules would prevent Troy from returning to Las Lomas and having a second football season, he could return and play another sport if a return to play happens in California.
Can what’s happening in Utah be a possibility for California by January? Nicole dela Vega says the family has received more earnest queries about Park City’s classroom and football procedures than judgment on their decision.
Troy is optimistic his former teammates will get the same opportunity he is getting.
“If we can do it,” he said, “I think California can as well.”