High schools throughout the Stanislaus District have canceled games, tournaments and practices for the winter sports season due to poor air quality as a result of smoke from major California wildfires.
Ceres Unified School District also postponed the Central Valley Gridiron Youth Football League (CVGYFL) Super Bowl.
“We’re not complaining,” Central Valley High School Athletic Director Greg Magni said. “All of our coaches understand this is minimal compared to what Paradise and surrounding communities are going through. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected.”
Pacheco’s and Central Valley’s boys soccer teams were supposed to battle Tuesday evening at 6 in Los Banos. The non-league contest was called off in the morning.
Pitman’s and Central Valley’s boys and girls basketball teams were scheduled to play CIF Foundation games at 8 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively, in Turlock on Monday.
El Capitan’s and Ceres High’s boys and girls basketball contests were canceled as well.
Central Valley-Ceres High girls soccer has been rescheduled for Nov. 29. The varsity and junior-varsity matches will be staged at 6 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively, at Bulldog Stadium.
Central Valley’s Novice Wrestling Tournament for this past weekend was postponed on Friday.
The Central Valley-Johansen boys basketball, Central Valley-Oakdale girls basketball and Central Valley-Manteca girls soccer games for last week were canceled.
Ceres High’s boys basketball games against Ponderosa, and boys and girls soccer matches versus Edison were postponed, too.
“Everything from Nov. 13 to Tuesday morning has been canceled,” Magni said. “We’ve stayed positive like everybody else. We’re being patient. We’re putting the safety of our students ahead of everything else.”
The CVGYFL planned to stage its varsity, junior-varsity, rookies and pee-wee Super Bowl games this past Saturday at Ceres High School. The contests will be held at a later date.
“We’re just waiting to hear back from the school district to see what days are available,” Ceres Jr. Bulldogs’ President Joe Estrada said. “We’re shooting for Dec. 8.”
