‘Something to be grateful for’: How Stanislaus’ top football teams spend Thanksgiving
Holidays and sports are synonymous. The World Series in baseball takes over Halloween, basketball is a Christmas Day staple and, in the sports world, football rules Thanksgiving.
Whether it’s watching an NFL game or raking leaves in the front yard for their own touch or tackle football games, many families across the country need that extra dose of Thanksgiving sports before settling down with their dinner plates.
Thanksgiving also brings a tradition for the most successful high school football teams across the Sac-Joaquin Section: practice.
Section championship games in Divisions I-VII are played Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. So, to fully prepare, coaches have adopted the tradition of practicing Thursday morning.
Three Stanislaus District teams, Ripon Christian, Hughson and Escalon will play championships this weekend.
The Knights face Woodland Christian in the Division VII title game at 6 p.m. Friday, while the Huskies play Summerville in Division VI and the Cougars play Sonora in the Division V championship Saturday at 1 and 6 p.m., respectively.
All practice Thursday.
“It’s something to be grateful for,” Ripon Christian coach Phil Grams said. “When you step on that field on Thanksgiving, the gratitude just oozes out of you. You’re still playing. You’re one of the 14 teams left.
“A lot of us, growing up, played a Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving, so this just replaces that. We get to come out and practice football for a real bowl, a championship on Friday.”
Thankful for the opportunity
Hughson hasn’t been to a section title game since 2000. That 21-13 win in the Division III title game over Colfax ended a 10-year run where the Huskies went to the championship five times, winning four.
Coach Shaun King isn’t familiar with how things work during championship week, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t thought about it since he started coaching there in 2018.
The Huskies were set to install their game plan during Thursday’s two-hour practice at 8 a.m. He has plans to line tables down the middle of the field at Hughson Stadium on Friday for football players and their families to enjoy a meal together.
“Girls dream of their weddings their whole life. My dream has been practicing on Thanksgiving,” King said. “I’ve had this whole idea since I first started coaching. I’ve always wanted to do this. It’s always been a dream to practice on Thanksgiving because there’s only 14 teams left.”
The section consists of 200 high schools. Just 14 compete for section titles.
Escalon is in its third straight championship game. The Cougars have practiced on Thanksgiving 17 times in the last 32 years.
“You never take these days or these weeks for granted,” Cougars coach Andrew Beam said. “Throughout a high school football season, there are so many ups and downs, and I think that our kids have been through all of those so far. We’re excited to be in the championship game one more time to play a really, really high-quality opponent in Sonora.”
A first-timer, King said he’s called on Beam for advice on how to handle the week.
“I think it’s just now starting to settle in,” King said. “I have a bunch of ex-players on my staff that never had this opportunity, so it’s like we’re a deer in headlights right now. I’ve talked to Coach Beam. I call him the veteran of all this.”
Business as usual
Grams is no stranger to Thanksgiving Day practices.
As an assistant at Granite Bay from 2002-2010, he spent a few Thanksgiving mornings at practice and was head coach at Capital Christian in 2014 when it won a Division VI championship. This year, he has led the Knights to their first title game since 2018.
The extra time to relax, enjoy food and family is always a key part of Thanksgiving Day, but for section championship qualifiers, the small amount time on the field is important.
With a Friday game, Ripon Christian’s Thanksgiving practice is the usual Thursday walk-through.
When you play late-November football as much as Escalon, Thanksgiving practice goes from being a tradition to a superstition.
In 2017, football was pushed back a week after a rough fire season, meaning the section semifinal against Hilmar was Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Beam decided to give his team the day off instead of sharpening their schemes.
“And we lost,” Beam recalled. “That was the only time we have ever not practiced on Thanksgiving morning, and we lost. So we made sure to go back to practicing on Thanksgiving.
“We make sure to tell the kids why we practice on Thanksgiving. We need to stay active and stay focused. You can do both. You can focus on family and football.”
Said Grams: “You just have to look back and look at all the hard work you put into it and then just understand how special it is to be practicing on Thanksgiving and be grateful that you’re doing it. We have to have an attitude of gratitude all week as we approach this goal.”
