Change is in the air: SJS juggles title games due to smoke
Changes in air conditions on Friday led to sudden changes in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs that impact Lodi-area high schools.
Section Assistant Commissioner Will DeBoard sent out a press release on on Friday afternoon saying that, due to the smoke from the Camp Fire in Butte County that has drifted into the Sacramento region, the water polo championships have been moved to Tokay High’s swimming pool today. The championships were originally going to be played at Woodcreek High of Roseville. The Tokay girls water polo squad, the No. 2 seed in Division II, will play Rio Americano at 1 p.m.
The semifinals for girls’ D IIII were held at Tokay’s pool Wednesday, and have been held there throughout this decade.
An extra set of bleachers were set on the northeast side of the Tokay’s pool on Friday. The bleachers on the west side of the school’s Olympic-size pool are still in place, plus the north and east sides of the pool. The benches for players and coaches were also on the west of the pool.
The section championships for cross-country were going to take place today at Willow Hills on the Folsom High campus, but that has been postponed. The meet has been moved to Saturday, Nov. 17. The Lodi girls, Tokay boys and Liberty Ranch’s boys qualified as teams, while Galt has individuals scheduled to compete.
“We’ve seen the air quality get progressively worse as the day as gone by,” DeBoard stated in the press release. “We’ve spoken with the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, which has received recent forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that say the air quality will be above 150 (red/unhealthy) in eastern Sacramento County for most of (today).”
The 150 measurement referred to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index.
In a phone interview Friday, DeBoard said that the game plan is to have all of the water polo championship games played today. Should the air quality worsen today, then the section will make a decision.
Veteran’s Day is observed Monday — Sunday is the actual holiday. If needed, the section could move the water polo finals to Monday since most
high schools are off Monday.
“Play it by ear,” DeBoard said. “The weather forecast has been fairly decent further south. If we have to go further south we should be OK. But we will cross that bridge when we get to it.”
The first round of the firstever CIF NorCal Regional Championships is scheduled to begin Tuesday. But DeBoard said that the state playoffs could be pushed back to Thursday should the section championship games be played Monday.
“If it comes to that,” DeBoard said.
DeBoard said he received phone calls and emails from high school athletic directors and coaches regarding the status of the playoffs in football, as well as water polo and cross-country. All of the section’s second round football playoff games were played Friday.
As for cross-country, the Lodi area squads and individuals and the rest of the section have an extra week to prepare for the section championships. But those teams and individuals who qualify next weekend will have only one week to prepare for the CIF State CrossCountry Championships, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 24 at Woodward Park in Fresno.
“At 1 o’clock (Friday), the air quality took a massive leap to 150 into the unhealthy range,” DeBoard said. “We can’t have kids running out there. We had hope air quality would remain OK at least through Saturday, and it didn’t.”