On January 7th, Santa Ana winds came to the San Gabriel Valley, igniting fires all around the San Gabriel Valley region. With ash falling like snow, and flames consuming residential areas, Mission Valley sports have had to adapt and pivot to a new schedule dictated by the Eaton Fire.
Gabrielino High School’s athletic directors, Edith Gonzalez and Andres Diosdado, have had to postpone and cancel games and competitions for various sports. While Gabrielino was cleared to begin rescheduling games and matches, schools like Marshall High School, which was affected more severely by the fires, have taken longer to be cleared.
Although the fires did not directly impact San Gabriel compared to other schools in the Southern California area, Gabrielino sports were still affected by the fires.
“All athletic contests for Gabrielino were cancelled for 4 days, including a Wrestling tournament and Cheer competition,” explained Gonzalez. “Practices at Smith Park pool were canceled for 5 days.”
The cancellations have also affected the athletes. This took away seniors’ playing time and made their weeks busier with rescheduled games.
“I was disappointed that we weren’t able to compete,” states Cheer Captain and senior Kara Mak.
Similar to the cheer team, the girls soccer team had their game against Marshall, their rivals, rescheduled. Due to the accelerated schedule, the team had fewer practices leading up to the game, leaving them feeling unprepared. As a result, the rescheduled match ended in a tie.
Even though Gabrielino has been forced to push back league sports events and practices, the dates of CIF have not changed.
“Finding places to safely make-up missed games was strategic and required a team effort between the athletic directors from all schools,” stated Gonzalez. Various steps have been taken to ensure student athletes are able to compete in the rescheduled games, including vacuuming ash off the soccer field in order to keep sports events on schedule as much as they can.
However, once other schools were cleared to begin competing with Gabrielino, schools like Marshall still were not able to host competitions. This has led to away games being hosted at Gabrielino rather than at Marshall, since only Gabrielino’s sports facilities have been cleared for use, while schools such as Marshall’s have not.
This season presents unique challenges, as coaches and athletes must fit in all games within a condensed timeframe while accommodating schools more affected by the Eaton Fire. However, Gabrielino should still be able to complete the season as planned, despite some obstacles.
