Well, there was no joy in Mudville, nor Riverbank, this past week, and it was not because Mighty Casey struck out. Bruin High School games and matches, both indoor and out, were all cancelled last week because of the oppressive and dangerous level of smoke in the air.
The high Air Quality Index numbers, those indicating dangerous levels of pollutants, were caused by the smoke from the Camp Fire in Butte County. The smoke even interfered for a time with operations at San Francisco International Airport during the period.
No harm no foul, however, they were all pre-season contests, so the cancellations only served to disappoint student athletes looking to compete on fields and courts around town.
There’s both good news and bad for local sports fans looking to see games at home this month, though, with a limited schedule of contests.
Bruin Basketball
The good, well, there’s a little bit of boys basketball scheduled for this week. A home pre-season game for JV and varsity against Delhi was set for Tuesday, after The News went to press, and the boys frosh are to play in the Modesto tournament, running Wednesday through Friday.
Here at home, Thursday through Saturday, Riverbank hosts its annual boys basketball Tip-Off Tournament in the Ray Fauria Memorial Gymnasium. That’s Nov. 29 through Dec. 1.
The bad news? After the tournament, there won’t be any more basketball on the home courts until the middle of December. In between, there are four sets of games on the road. On Dec. 18, the Bruins host Hilmar, but it’s all on the road for the rest of the month, including a couple of tournaments over the Christmas break.
Lady Bruin basketball suffers the same kind of scheduling, with away tournaments for both JV and varsity this week, with road games and tournaments until Dec. 20, when they’ll host Escalon.
RHS Soccer Squads
Girls soccer won’t have another home match scheduled until next week, when they host McNair High School from Stockton.
For the boys, they won’t have another home match until Dec. 18, when they host Livingston, then they won’t be back home again until next year, Jan. 8, against Ripon.
