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AFM Magazine


Fire, Football and Families

by: John J.T. Torres
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(The following article was written by John Torres, a 25-year veteran of coaching youth football. The feature describes the effect of last October's fires throughout the San Diego area and how it affected Coach Torres and his team).

Saturday ­ October 20th, 2007

The SC Wildcats as an organization go 7-3 today. My squad, the J1 Navy team, brings home a win after playing a tough squad from Simi. A birthday is celebrated at local eatery and none of us are ready for the next dayıs event.

Sunday ­ October 21st, 2007

A small fire starts that ends up being called the Castaic/Ranch Fire.

Smoke is billowing from a small hill range behind our house. During the day the smoke looks fairly innocuous. We have a coaches meeting later in the afternoon to discuss next weeks opponent and before the meeting ends, the smoke in the distance has become darker, thicker and ominous. I received a call from two football families offering their homes should we need it.

Monday October 22nd, 2007

2:30 AM
Receive a call from my oldest son and defensive coach, Zack. He also is our Defensive Coordinator. He lives about three miles east of us and on a little plateau. He says he can see the fire behind us getting closer to our home. I look out the window and see nothing. We are too low to see what he sees. I sleep the rest of the night like an alligator, with one eye open.

5:00 AM
The days starts as usual and I get up at O-dark thirty to go to Los Angeles to work. I leave the neighborhood and look to the west and realize that some small fires have made it into Hasley Canyon and spot fires are everywhere on ³our side of the hill." These are the fires that Zack had seen earlier. I make a quick U-Turn and head back to my home and wake my wife and told her we should start packing. I called the neighbors to tell them as well.

The Devil Winds get worse and the fire kicks in and changes direction and starts heading our way.

10:00 AM
I speak to SC Wildcat President James McGoldrick about our practice schedule. Decision is made to cancel practice for Tuesday and monitor the situation.

11:00 AM
We get the orders to evacuate. Mandatory orders. Our small cul de sac rallies up and pitches in to help each other get out. My wife packs all the required items as I load them in the truck. For some odd reason she packs my son's football pads, helmet and game uniform. I donıt ask her why. I grab some game film and scouting tapes and throw them in with the rest of my valuables. She does ask me why and after a brief second, she acquiesces.

I received no less that a half dozen more calls from football friends and players parents offering to come and help us move out. I helped a young mother across the street loaded her SUV with family keepsakes. Her husband is a firefighter and was on the fire line. That was the least I could do.

Noon
I send my wife and son to a co-workers home in Valencia, but traffic congestion diverts them towards Stevenson Ranch and they make their way to the McGoldrick family compound. They call me and tell me they are safe. I stay back to make a Œlast stand should an ember make its way under the eves in my roof. A neighbor and I, who stayed back also, trade football stories and lament about the BCS rankings. We pity Charlie Weis, the Notre Dame Coach, and guess about how good Ohio State really is. His son plays on my squad and we talk about our boys playing football together through High School.

2:30
Wife calls and says that a fire has broken out in Stevenson's Ranch, as well. James McGoldricksı in-laws have been evacuated too and are heading to their location. The Magic Mountain Fire is moving fast and not giving homeowners much time to pack. The in-laws leave with just the clothes on their backs and a few valuables.

3:00
My wife calls and says they are being evacuated again (Note: My wife and sonıs second evacuation in three hours) from Stevensonıs Ranch. They start heading to Newhall to the home of one of our football player's parents, the Wheelers, who had called earlier to offer assistance. The Wheelers son, ³18², has played for me for three years. Coincidentally, I worked with his grandfather earlier in my career, nearly 25 years ago.

We watch the news report and the area around West Ranch High School is on fire. One camera showed a fire near the tennis courts. Our home football field is West Ranch. My stomach turned sour and I wanted to drive immediately to the field and take a stand and douse any embers that may have floated to our beloved field. The field will be fine, I convince myself.

But my thoughts linger for my family and for some odd reason, some strange reason, the football field.

3:15

We get the all-clear sign in our neighborhood so I call the wife and family and tell them to come home. Come quickly.

5:00 PM

We watch the news and see one of our coachesı on TV (Deron White) in front of his house. His home is near the Magic Mountain Fire. I called him to offer any assistance we could. Could not reach him.

5-7 PM

I receive no less than 15 calls and emails from family and football coaches from as far north as Washington State and as far south as the Imperial Valley. One Northern California coach was ready to get in his car and drive down right then to assist us. I waived him off but conveyed my appreciation. A long time friend and fellow coach, Hugh Wyatt, admits candidly that he will no longer complain about rain in the Northwest after seeing what we are dealing with.

7:30 PM

Some area moms' grab some dinner as the dadsı monitor the news and watch the kids play. The moms' return with some fried chicken and side dishes. This night we, a group of football families from the Santa Clarita Wildcats and Castaic Cougars, sit down and break bread. We trade stories about the daysı happenings. We watch Monday Night Football. First time we have eaten together in over a year. Where does the time go?

9:00 PM

I make the customary call to the opposing coach for the upcoming Saturday game. Big game for both of us. We are both undefeated and the winner will clinch a tie for the championship, but you would have never guessed it by the conversation. Under normal circumstances, this would be a quick, curt call to confirm logistics for the game. Some calls have even been almost confrontational. This night, comrades in arms, we talked about the fire and Santa Clarita. We talked about football families being displaced and the current weather prognosis. We talked about how our players were doing. He was very sympathetic to our plight. We agreed to talk later in the week when the situation settled down. Another opposing coach we had played several weeks ago from the San Fernando Valley called as well. He offered help including football equipment if we needed it. I told him thank you and that so far we were OK, but to say a prayer. He did.

9:30 PM

I found my valuable game tapes and reviewed our next opponent on DVD. Life is starting to get back to normal.

Tuesday - October 23, 2007

4:30 AM
I walk down the street to get a better look at the hillside. The Devil Winds have kicked up some small fires behind us again. A new fire has started to our north, behind one of our players house, in the Double C Ranch area. I think about our player and his fine family, the Dela Rippa's.

Football families. For now we are ok.

8:30 AM
I drive down to get a better look at where the fires are behind our home. I see some fire units from Napa County Fire, Helena Fire Department and Calistoga Fire Department rolling into our neighborhood. All of us give them a big thumbs up and tell them ³Thank You!" Talk about feeling like the cavalry has arrived! They have driven nearly 500 miles, probably driving most of the night. God Bless Them! I bet you at least one of them, no I bet you nearly all of them, played football at some point in their lives.

6:00 PM
Film night for the Wildcats J1 Navy team. The team needs to have films to prepare for their next opponent. The team needs to have films to get back to normalcy. The teamıs head coach needs to have the team around him to insure that everyone is doing well mentally and, most importantly, present and accounted for. The head coach needs this for himself, really. Everything is back to normal, for now.

Football Blood is Thicker than Water...






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