Turlock High’s football season opener against Rocklin is postponed. Here’s why.
The Turlock-Rocklin football game scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. at Rocklin High School has been moved to Saturday at 12:30 p.m. due to smoky conditions, according to Turlock head coach James Peterson.
Peterson says the decision was made at around 12:15 p.m. after seeing today’s Air Quality Index forecast in the Rocklin area was expected to reach at least the 150 benchmark.
AQI of 151 or above is considered “unhealthy.” When it’s that high, the website AirNow states that: “Some members of the general public may experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.”
If at any time Saturday the AQI reaches above 150, the game will be paused to see if the air quality will improve and the game can continue. The daytime AQI tends to be lower.
Due to Thursday’s air quality, the freshman game was canceled after Turlock had already made the trip. To avoid sending the teams away then having to cancel, they checked before the junior varsity team left and decided to cancel that game as well.
The AQI has not reached 150 in Turlock, so Peterson says an athletic trainer will be on campus to monitor air quality as they plan on having a short walk through.
The Sacramento area has been hit hard by wildfire smoke coming from the Dixie Fire to the north and the Caldor Fire, in El Dorado County, to the east.
