Football games moved

Forget about your traditional “Friday Night Lights.” It’s now looking more like “Monday Night Football.”

That’s the tentative schedule for three of the four Newport-Mesa Unified School District high school football programs, with the other starting Monday afternoon, as the quality of air from the Orange County fires was determined unhealthy for schools to play their normally scheduled games today and Saturday.

The nearby fires have impacted the local sports scene with each of the district schools, Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa, Estancia and Newport Harbor, as well as Sage Hill School, a private school, either canceling or postponing practically every sporting event this week.

The rescheduling will make next week interesting, especially for football, a rigorous sport demanding usually a week for teams to recover and prepare after a game.

Teams plan to play twice in one week. The move is legal as Thom Simmons, director of communications for the CIF Southern Section, which governs high school sports for most of the Southland, said schools are allowed to play two games in an eight-day period.

Sage Hill might not have to, possibly making it one of the few schools in the county that will play this weekend. The Lightning (6-1) are the only Newport-Mesa area team that plans to play their game Saturday, an Academy League opener at St. Margaret’s (7-0) at 6 p.m. if the air improves, Sage Hill Athletic Director John Poffenberger said Thursday.

The district’s tentative Monday schedule of games is: Los Alamitos at Newport Harbor at 7 p.m., Costa Mesa at Laguna Beach at 7 p.m., Corona del Mar at Irvine at 7 p.m., and Estancia against Calvary Chapel at Newport Harbor at 3 p.m.

“Heck, we’ll play in the morning. The kids are just excited to play and be in gear because we haven’t for [13 straight days],” said Estancia Coach Mike Bargas, whose team returned from a bye this week and has seen its regular practices drastically changed in preparation for its Orange Coast League opener.

Practices were limited to walk-throughs early in the week and then the district ordered Estancia and the rest of the schools to refrain from doing anything the last couple of days. Just watch film.

That’s been the case with the rest of the programs and if the air quality remains the same by Monday, Newport Harbor Boys’ Athletic Director Eric Tweit said the Sailors would cancel their Sunset League game with Los Alamitos and not make it up. This means Newport Harbor (5-2, 1-1 in league) and the other five league teams will cancel their regularly scheduled Week 8 games and go to a nine-game schedule instead of their normal 10 games.

A shorter season is also possible for teams in the Pacific Coast League, where CdM (3-5, 1-1) plays, and the Orange Coast League, home to Estancia (3-4) and Costa Mesa (0-7), if the air conditions stay poor. If any leagues cut games from their schedules, which a couple of leagues in the county have already done, this can impact a team when it comes to the postseason selection process, mostly at-large entries, according to Simmons. The section has decided that leagues can submit their playoff entries by 3 p.m. on Nov. 10.

The district’s cautionary measures halting action due to the fires’ polluting the air with smoke, gas and dust has for the most part been praised by administrators, athletic directors, coaches, parents, athletes and fans.

But CdM girls’ volleyball coach Bill Christiansen questioned the district’s decision to cancel events away from fire danger. CdM and Harbor were looking forward to the prestigious Santa Barbara Tournament until their trips got spiked.

“It’s very disappointing,” he said of the teams forced to cancel the two-day, 16-team event, which was slated to start today. “We were lucky to not get billed for our hotel rooms because we canceled 20 minutes before our deadline to do so. [Tournament officials] were very upset [that we had to cancel]. They couldn’t understand if the air quality in Orange County was bad why wouldn’t [the district] allow the kids to go out to an area that had pristine air. Why can they sit in the classroom all day and not sit in the car and go to Santa Barbara?

“College coaches from Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, and many other colleges are coming to watch the girls play. Some of our girls are being watched and now they won’t.”

Jeremy Osso, Costa Mesa’s football coach, isn’t expecting college programs to show up to his Monday night game. Still, when he informed his players Thursday that today’s game moved to Monday night, they all got jacked up.

“My kids were going up to me and asking me, ‘Since we’re playing on Monday night, is ESPN going to be there?’” Osso said.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].