LAKE COUNTY >> Middletown High School varsity football coach Bill Foltmer was ready to move his team’s practice to Coyote Valley Elementary School in Hidden Valley Lake before an advisory evacuation order for the Middletown area was lifted early Monday afternoon.
That evacuation order was issued last week because the same Tubbs Fire that had already ravaged Sonoma and Napa counties was trying to reach Lake County over Mount St. Helena along the Highway 29 corridor. With that advisory evacuation order in effect, Middletown’s schools and all of Middletown’s sports teams — high school, middle school or otherwise — were not allowed to practice or hold games.
That’s why Foltmer was ready to take his practice outside the evacuation zone.
“We haven’t practiced in a week,” Foltmer said. “We’re going to practice somewhere today (Monday), inside or outside. The kids need the cardio work to get ready. If this goes on any longer they won’t be in shape to play a game. It won’t be safe.”
Middletown and the eight other teams that make up the North Central League I — Clear Lake, Cloverdale, Fort Bragg, Kelseyville, Lower Lake, St. Helena, St. Vincent and Willits — couldn’t do much about the fire situation last week. Blazes up and down the North Coast brought practices and games to a standstill in Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma and Napa counties. Major thoroughfares and many smaller roads were closed, making driving conditions dangerous. An entire week’s worth of sports in all of the fall sports, football included, were postponed or canceled. In the NCL I, where the regular season is followed by the postseason with no time left to conduct makeup games, those football contests lost last weekend aren’t likely to be made up.
None of the county’s football teams were spared what Middletown went through last week. While Middletown was the only school under an advisory evacuation order, the air quality all around the county left coaches two options — go indoors to practice or cancel practice completely. Indoor practices do allow teams to physically condition, but limit what they can do in most other areas.
“You maybe get about 60 percent out of an indoor practice from what you would get outdoors,” Kelseyville coach Erick Larson estimated.
That would have been OK with Foltmer, except he had no team to practice with a week ago. School was out because of the advisory evacuation order and Middletown’s 33-year coaching veteran didn’t even know if all of his players were still in the Middletown area.
Some families, according to Foltmer, left town, not wanting to repeat their Valley Fire experience of two years ago when they were forced to flee at the last second, without most of their personal belongings.
As a result of last weekend’s game cancellations, Middletown vs. Clear Lake and Kelseyville vs. Lower Lake probably won’t happen this year. Other NCL I teams also canceled their games. What the exact fallout will be when the league race is concluded remains to be seen. Fort Bragg, for instance, lost a sure win against a winless St. Vincent squad.
Middletown, the only team without a league loss, has games remaining against Fort Bragg, St. Helena and Willits. If the Mustangs run the table, they will be the outright champions. Clear Lake, Kelseyville and Lower Lake all have one league loss, a situation that will change Friday night when Clear Lake hosts Lower Lake.
For certain the games lost this past weekend are not the end of the world and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Given what was happening right here in Lake County with the Sulphur Fire and in neighboring counties, it was an extremely small price to pay.
Week Eight of the 2017 high school football season marks the first time in Lake County sports history an entire week’s worth of football has been lost, but it’s far from a tragedy — one look around the North Coast the last week or so should convince you of that. It’s simply an inconvenience and nothing more.
