Smoke, heat altering tonight’s high school football schedule

Poor air quality caused by massive fires at both ends of the San Joaquin Valley forced on Friday the postponement, cancelation or movement of high school football games involving Stanislaus District team.

Here’s a list of the changes we have as of 3:30 p.m.

▪ Turlock’s game at Clovis West of Fresno is canceled.

▪ Sonora’s game against Hilmar scheduled for the foothills was moved to Hilmar.

▪ Buhach Colony’s game at Clovis North was tentatively rescheduled for 7 o’clock Saturday night.

▪ Capital Christian’s game at Amador was moved to Monday night at Capital Christian.

▪ Mariposa’s game at Minarets in O’Neals (Madera County) was canceled.

▪ Escalon’s scheduled game at Bret Harte was postponed until Monday, where it will be played in Escalon.

There also have been some Stanislaus District games that have been moved the start time back a half-hour or hour to 8 p.m. due to the heat.

Turlock coach Anthony Belew said his junior varsity team was on the bus ready to head south when he got a call saying the JV game had been canceled. About 10 minutes later, he go a call that the varisty game was called off, too.

He said they thought about rescheduling, but both teams have different bye weeks. The possibility of playing Saturday went out the window because some players have an ACT college entrance exam to take in the morning. Playing in Turlock was discussed, but there weren’t any fields available, Belew said.

The Butte fire in Amador and Calaveras counties is raging out of control, with more than 50,000 acres burned and only 10 percent containment. To the south, the Rough fire in Fresno County remains active has burned more than 119,000 acres.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Smoke, heat altering tonight’s high school football schedule."