Mt. Diablo finds temporary home football field after fire damages its on-campus facility

CONCORD Mt Diablo has uncovered a home venue for at least its first two football games this season but not on campus after fire destroyed its new field Expected to unveil the multimillion-dollar turf on Friday night the football squad will instead play its season opener against Terra Linda at nearby Concord High Concord will also be the home venue for Mt Diablo s contest on Sept against Vallejo After that it s unclear where the Red Devils will play The changes became necessary after fire engulfed the middle of the Concord school s field on Saturday night Functionaries are scrutinizing to determine the cause of the blaze which stayed lit until early Sunday morning School bureaucrats hope the field can be repaired in the next sparse weeks which would allow the football company to return to the field for practice and games before the season ends The Red Devils scheduled seven of their nine regular-season games at home including six in a row to begin the year according to MaxPreps Naturally the first instinct from the kids is that they re all bummed out Mt Diablo coach Fetuao Mua advised the Bay Area News Group on Tuesday I think the district s working really hard to make sure we re out on our field in the next two three weeks So you know we don t expect to be away from home too long Varsity football offensive line coach Rick Camacho examines the charred section of the football field that was destroyed by vandalism at Mt Diablo High School in Concord Calif on Monday Aug School bureaucrats stated that the field caught on fire on Saturday evening Monday afternoon the football unit was forced to practice on the adjacent grass field due to the damaged caused by the fire Players never even got to play on the mutlimillion-dollar turf field which was installed over the summer break Jose Carlos Fajardo Bay Area News Group For the next two weeks Mt Diablo will hold football programs at Concord High including practices Should conflicts come up Principal Markell McCain reported this news organization that the school will look into holding games and practices at Diablo Valley College Los Medanos College or other Mt Diablo School District facilities McCain explained he doesn t want to put a date for when the Mt Diablo field will be playable But he and Mua believe the field could be repaired for games this season Mt Diablo s turf field and track were installed in March at a cost of about million according to McCain McCain explained he wasn t sure if the field was insured the district handles those decisions but the school has already started the process to have it repaired We ve reached out to the contractors who did the field and they re trying to expedite the recovery order to repair the field McCain mentioned It might be an issue getting that type of turf because it was high-end turf So getting that turf delivered to Concord is what I m hearing is the major hold up Concord police and Contra Costa fire departments are probing the blaze McCain announced Mt Diablo has cameras that monitor its football field but McCain disclosed a perpetrator was not seen on video It was so dark it was at night and all we could see was the flickering of a light McCain mentioned There were other cameras that caught footage that were not directly our cameras but neighboring cameras They could be resident cameras and stuff like that From my understanding those cameras caught particular footage of stuff so they re gonna be sharing that with me this afternoon Since the case the football band has remained in good spirits The Red Devils held practice at an adjacent grass field on Monday and had their best prep of the season Mua stated Mua hopes to turn the setback into a life lesson for his band Related Articles High school football preseason rankings Bay Area News Group Top Bellarmine football What s next after storied operation s first - season Mt Diablo s field set on fire displacing football association days before first contest Monday Morning Lights What to know as Bay Area teams kick off season RB Jhadis Luckey discusses transfer from California High to Clayton Valley It s just a little adversity Mua revealed This is going to give us a chance to build a little more character and it s just another speed bump in the road for us It s nothing we can t handle Life throws you curve balls and sometimes you just have to learn how to roll with the punches This situation is no different for us At the end of the day we still get to play the battle we love It s sad to say but there s bigger problems out there in the real world So this is just one minor obstacle and it s definitely fueled the kids Improved shield at the field will be a big emphasis for McCain as he works in conjunction with the district including workable nightly guards to watch the field in the coming weeks The big thing I m going to be pushing for is prevention for that building That s a conversation we need to have McCain announced I think having night guards would be nice but I really think just getting modern fencing around or having defense gates like a lot of the other high schools have would be sufficient