The St. Francis boys basketball group text lit up with a message from one of the team captains. He needed to know: Is everybody good? Does anyone need anything? His dad has a truck and he can help in an evacuation.
“You get to see the vulnerable side and the non-basketball side of them,” Golden Knights coach Todd Wolfson said. “In practice, they’re going against each other and they’re competing but you get to see how much they really love and care for each other when stuff like this happens.”
Multiple families for players on the St. Francis boys basketball team have been displaced because of the Eaton Fire, which started Tuesday night. The city of La Cañada was evacuated, forcing many school administrators and the friars who live at the school to leave campus.
The situation also caused high school coaches and athletes across Southern California to remain vigilant amid unpredictable severe weather conditions.
Granada Hills Charter girls basketball held a late-morning shootaround Wednesday in preparation for its evening game against Birmingham, which wound up being canceled. Multiple players were absent because of evacuation orders caused by the Hurst Fire.
Most players who live in Granada Hills were in warning zones and ready to evacuate, but others that live in Sylmar already had to leave their homes. Head coach Rai Colston said on Wednesday morning that the effects of the fire have been manageable.
“For the most part everyone has been fine,” he said. “(The challenges are) more so logistically … (not) so much emotionally. It hasn’t been too intense for us.”
Coastal Canyon League schools like Oak Park have also felt more present logistical challenges after going through the events of the Woolsey Fire in 2018 and then the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“There’s a human element,” Oak Park athletic director Tim Chevalier said. “There’s a little bit of a disconnect where you’re in the heat of the moment and you just have to solve problems and be cool about it. It’s usually later on down the road when you look back and it’s like wow, that was pretty unreal.”
At St. Francis, however, there’s no escaping the surreality. Multiple varsity, JV and freshmen players have been moved out. Wolfson has been offering help in any form — even if it’s sending an Uber Eats delivery their way.
Wolfson and his family, who live in Old Town Pasadena, had not been evacuated as of Wednesday afternoon but they are packed and ready. The school itself has not been damaged and players are still looking forward to the happiness of basketball.
“Players are like, ‘Coach when is the game going to be made up?’ None of that matters right now,” Wolfson said.
“You forget how thankful and lucky you are until you’re not. Until things go the other way. When all this is over and everyone is good and safe, which I know they will be, it’s just remembering how lucky we are and fortunate to have each day. And we have a “bad day,” is it really bad compared to days like this?”
