Feeling a void without Friday Night Lights

Sometimes you feel a void because you simply were not ready for the
ramifications.

For the second time in as many years in California, lives were turned upside down
because of wildfires that caused everything from deaths, missing people,
hospitalization, devastation and people losing their homes. In 2015, it was Lake
County experiencing the brunt of this devastation. In 2017, it was people in Napa
and Sonoma County. At present, it is Butte County. I guess what they say is true,
misery loves company. On that note, my heart goes out to those who have suffered
to such an extent. I also give an enormous shoutout to first responders who are
doing everything in their power to end this dastardly blaze. Even if you were
hundreds of miles from the fire location, your life was compromised because of
air quality that ranged from unhealthy to unsafe. My voice sounds like I smoked
two packs of cigarettes.

On the sports front, numerous football games in the North Coast Section playoffs
have been postponed for the third consecutive week. Initially, the games that did
not get played on Friday, Nov. 9, were slated for Monday, Nov. 12. Poor air quality
had other ideas and pushed various games to Saturday, Nov. 17. The air quality
continues to be in that condition and as a  result, quarterfinals have been
postponed until Saturday, Nov. 24, assuming the air quality improves by that time.

I limit the focus in this space to the Napa Valley because that is where I reside,
along with most of this readership, even if it is all 18 of them. In the NCS, on the
Div. I side of the ledger, the No. 8 seeded Vintage Crushers have been riding the
crest of a 10 game winning streak. The Crushers blasted the James Logan (Union
City) Colts 36-0 for their first playoff win since 1986. One week later, Vintage
traveled to No. 1 seeded Antioch and upset the Panthers 24-21 in overtime.
Vintage will play the winner of No. 4 San Ramon Valley and No. 5 Monte Vista.

In Div. II, the American Canyon Wolves continued their tremendous in-season
turnaround. The Wolves were once 0-4 but dusted themselves off the canvas to
win six of their next seven games including their 43-29 win on the road against the
Montgomery (Santa Rosa) Vikings. The Wolves will play at No. 1 seeded Rancho
Cotate (Rohnert Park).

In Div. V, St. Helena defeated Hoopa Valley 48-22 and is slated to travel to
Salesian (Richmond). Both clubs are 6-4.

The first thing I want to see are those most directly affected by the fires to be
able to begin their healing process. Having never been in that situation, however,
I could not even begin to give advice.

From there, once the air quality improves the questions can become: a) Can
Vintage continue its tremendous ride? b) Can American Canyon shock the world
and beat Rancho Cotate? And c) What does the 2018 chapter of St. Helena/
Salesian bring? There is an American Canyon football angle to the fires in Butte
County. Lavar Seay, who graduated from American Canyon last June, attends
Butte Community College (Oroville) and plays football there. His younger brother,
Brandon, is a senior on the Wolves football team. Shannon Seay, who is the
mother of Lavar and Brandon, has posted on social media at various times that
Lavar is safe.

Yours truly was quite outspoken about the earlier than normal start to the 2018
high school football season in California. The earlier start in large part stemmed
from the expansion of the CIF Regional and State playoffs which subsequently
pushed the season deeper into winter sports season. Granted, that scenario
only affects a select few schools but it presents a problem nonetheless. Here
were my thoughts at the time:

http://vincedadamo.blogspot.com/2018/07/early-start-to-high-school-football.html

It turns out the early start time was a pre-emptive contingency plan since wildfires
in California have become exceedingly problematic.

Hoping for a return of Friday Night Lights.