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SANTA CLARA — By rights, they should have been at their own game, the one they earned. The Paradise High football team finished 8-2 and was barreling toward the section playoffs before the Camp Fire torched everything they owned — their town, their homes, their season.
So the 49ers offered them an escape route. The team arranged for a bus to pick up the heartbroken players in Chico and drive them to the Bay Area, where so much wayward smoke preceded them. The Bobcats got their football game, all right, standing on the sideline during the national anthem of a Monday Night Football showdown between the 49ers and Giants.
This was no ordinary trip. The eerily quiet five-hour bus ride made that clear.
“We all slept. They’re exhausted,” Paradise High coach Rick Prinz said upon arrival at Levi’s Stadium. “They’re all displaced. All of their homes have burned down. They lost everything.”
Flames swallowed Paradise whole as part of the widespread damage that reached 90,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,400 structures. The death toll reached 42 on Monday, making it the deadliest fire in modern California history.
For the football players, one of the toughest losses was a forfeit. The Bobcats had no choice but to surrender their Division II Northern Section first-round home playoff game to sixth-seeded Red Bluff High (2-8). Trying to show heart, Red Bluff officials offered to forfeit instead so that No. 3-seeded Paradise could sail through to its rightful spot in the Northern Section semifinals.
But there was no point.
“One of my players put it best,” Prinz said. “He said, ‘I really want to play the game, but I lost everything I own and I need to find out where I’m going to live.”‘
Paradise quarterback Colby Cline said that 90 percent of the players lost their houses, including himself. The senior was getting ready for school Thursday morning when his parents told him to hold off. The fire was spreading, they said, and the family might have to evacuate. Cline had a predictable response to mom and dad worrying so much. He is, after all, a teenager.
“I kind of thought they were being ridiculous,” Cline said.
But the team captain knows how to scramble, too, and soon he was helping orchestrate his family’s frantic exit. “Within an hour,” Cline said, “the whole town was on fire and we were in a rush to get out.”
Cline and his family are now staying in a hotel in Folsom. Trevor Rickson, a linebacker, fled with his mom and sister and are now staying with his aunt in Chico. Prinz, the coach, said his house withstood the blaze, but even that news was bittersweet. Prinz explained, holding back tears, that every other house in his neighborhood burned to the ground.
“It makes you feel a little bit guilty and grateful at the same time,” he said.
In search of a way to cheer up the team, Tim Taylor, the Butte County superintendent, reached out Sunday to his old friend Jesse Lovejoy, the director of EDU Academy and the 49ers museum. Taylor asked Lovejoy for help getting the Bobcats to the game; the 49ers responded with tickets, transportation, sideline passes and a meeting with General Manager John Lynch.
Prinz sent a group message to his players asking who might be up for a road trip. Almost everybody said yes. And when the 35 players, 16 cheerleaders and eight coaches boarded the bus Monday morning around 11 a.m., it was the first time they’d seen each other since their lives were upended. Before they pulled out of the lot, someone from the community rolled up in a pickup truck and handed out sweatshirts. They were afraid the players might only have T-shirts to wear at a time when supplies are short.
“We just rely on each other to keep each other up,” Cline said. “We just love each other because that’s what we’ve done all year. We’re a great group of brothers.”
#49ers GM John Lynch welcomes the Paradise High football team, which had to forfeit its playoff dreams because of fire devastation pic.twitter.com/ESFDDh3Kcu
— Daniel Brown (@BrownieAthletic) November 13, 2018
Rickson said: “We all just sat with each other and talked to see how we’ve all been. … A lot of people were talking about how they got out or where they’ve been staying. A lot of their houses have burned down. It’s really hard.”
After the 200-mile journey, the Bobcats arrived in Santa Clara about two hours before kickoff and found a friendly face before taking the field. Lynch greeted the team for a brief pep talk, handling the moment with a deft blend of respect and humor.
“Hopefully, being here tonight can make things a little better, all right?” Lynch said to the assembled squad. “We need the team. You guys help us out.”
Then Lynch paused and pointed to some rebel gear in the crowd.
“First of all, you need to take off that Raiders hat,” he said, laughing, before continuing. “You guys help us out and stand with our guys during the national anthem. Our guys are fired up for it. Stand with our team right out there. And, most of all have a good time tonight, all right?”
The players waited in the tunnel in the meantime, at first shyly watching players like Giants quarterback Eli Manning trot by on their way the field. But soon they loosened up, high-fiving players and shouting encouragement as if it were homecoming night. By the time the anthem played, players lined up dutifully on the edge of the sideline. 49ers players such as left tackle Joe Staley, defensive lineman DeForest Buckner and quarterback Nick Mullens draped supportive arms around the kids as the Star Spangled Banner played.
Several players planned on signing their game-worn jerseys from Monday night’s game as part of a charity auction for fire relief efforts. No one was under any delusion that this would fix of the devastation back home. But the 49ers hoped they doused some of the pain, if only for a night.
“I think it’s just a show of solidarity from our community,” Lynch said, shortly after wrapping up his pep talk with players. “Hey, we can all stand together and reach out and help each other during a time like this. .. I think we all just think about our families. I think about my kids. When you see the videos of people leaving, and driving through it, it’s tough.
“You think about the firemen and firewomen out there continuing to fight this … These are tough times and it takes everyone pulling together to help. These people are going to need support for a long time and I think we’ll do whatever we can and I would encourage everyone to do what they can to help these people out.”
The Bobcats would have preferred to be playing against Red Bluff at Paradise’s Om Wraith Field. But on this night, the NFL was good enough.
“It’s fantastic. First-class treatment,” Prinz said. “These guys are going to remember it forever. It’s just a great show of humanity and support.”
#49ers fans telling Paradise High players ‘Stay strong!’ pic.twitter.com/0gHm3jppbG
— Daniel Brown (@BrownieAthletic) November 13, 2018
