Fires force area sports teams to change plans
Marmonte League girls' golf events canceled
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

Sometimes the leisure of sports just isn't as important as other events going on in the world.

This week, more than a dozen wildfires in Southern California have inflamed more than 600 square miles of land, causing the evacuation of more than 500,000 people statewide.

With ash-filled skies making it difficult to breathe, many local sporting events and practices in the Tri-Valley, Marmonte and Patriot leagues have been rescheduled.

Three Marmonte League high schools, Royal, Simi Valley and Moorpark, were not in session Tuesday. All three were back in session on Wednesday.

Others, such as Thousand Oaks, Westlake and Newbury Park, were in session but were advised by the Conejo Unified School District superintendent to not hold any outdoor practices. All three principals adhered to the recommendation and canceled practices.

"The superintendent gave us word that we were not allowed to have any outdoor sport practices, and that included PE classes," NPHS head water polo coach Casey Graham said.

"Swimming is our bread and butter, so if we aren't allowed to do that, we won't do much. We don't want to go too hard in this weather, so we're basically just sitting in a room going over X's and O's."

The boys' water polo match Wednesday between Moorpark High and Agoura High was moved from Maverick's Gym in Moorpark to Agoura's home pool.

The TOHS girls' volleyball team had Tuesday's match against Royal canceled. It's been rescheduled for October 29.

"Sports is a big part of our lives, but it's really nothing compared to all this (the fires)," Thousand Oaks head girls' volleyball coach James Park said. "We can all deal with it. We've been just doing some walkthroughs indoors and that's it- basically the bare minimum. We don't want to do too much."

Calabasas High, which is located approximately 25 miles from the Malibu fires, had its girls' tennis matches canceled on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We had some parents concerned about the freeways going to Valencia on Wednesday, so I just canceled it ahead of time," Calabasas head tennis coach Kim Kinberg said. "I've been telling my kids to bring their rackets every day, but we're just dealing with the situation day by day."

Oaks Christian had its girls' volleyball game against Viewpoint High canceled on Tuesday, and the game will more than likely be made up sometime next week, according to OCHS athletic director Jan Hethcock.

Lions head coach George Hees said his team was still doing a good job of preparing for games.

"There's still a lot of motivation on our team- playoffs are just around the corner, and we have Oak Park next week- so we still have a lot to play for," Hees said. "We are still practicing, but it's mostly just walkthroughs and a lot less on the conditioning."

Some schools are in a better situation than others.

Oak Park High head cross country coach Kevin Smith said his team is running its normal practices in preparation for the Ventura County Championships, which was originally scheduled for Friday at Lake Casitas.

"There will probably not be a decision on whether or not the Championships take place until Thursday," Smith said. "We are treating this like a championship meet, though, and are running full practices. So far the only complaint I've gotten is from one runner who said, 'My god, the back of my mouth is so dry.'"

Agoura head football coach Charlie Wegher had his team practicing on Tuesday in preparation for its game at Royal this week.

"On Monday the weather was beautiful, but today (Tuesday) it's been a little hazier here in Agoura," Wegher said. "Until we start seeing a lot more smoke, we are going to keep practicing. I was told that if Royal can practice Wednesday then we will play the game Friday. If they cannot practice, then we may play the game Saturday."

Wegher said he talked to his team Tuesday in a meeting to discuss how to handle the abnormal events.

"I told them we have to ignore the things that are out of our control," Wegher said. "There's nothing we can do about the fire situation, so we have to focus on things we can control, like being prepared to play well against Royal this week."

On Wednesday at 1 p.m., principals and athletic directors from the Marmonte League held a closed-door meeting at TOHS to sort out the rest of the week's sports schedule.

Agoura principal and league president Larry Misel announced the football game between Royal and Agoura might have to be moved from Friday night to Saturday at 4 p.m., but word came later that the contest would kick off as planned on Friday at 7 p.m.

All other Marmonte football games will be played Friday night as well.

In addition, the league's final girls' golf tournaments, originally scheduled to be played today at Westlake Golf Course, have been canceled and will not be made up, Misel said.

While the Marmonte brass were trying to figure out when and where their games would be played, TriCounty Athletic Association president and Oak Park High head football coach Dick Billingsley was working out the details of where other Tri-Valley and Frontier games and practices would take place.

According to Billingsley, there was a chance the Fillmore High football team would practice at OPHS as early as Wednesday in preparation for its game against Malibu High (Oak Park would practice at night).

Billingsley said, if needed, the Malibu/Fillmore game could take place at Oak Park on Saturday.

Oak Park's rival, Oaks Christian, will still play Grace Brethren High tomorrow night at Moorpark College, even though the community college's campus was closed earlier in the week.