Fire, Football and Families

(The following article was written by John Torres, a 25-year veteran of coaching youth football. The feature describes the effect of last October\'s fires throughout the San Diego area and how it affected Coach Torres and his team). Saturday ­ October 20th, 2007 The SC Wildcats as an organization go 7-3 today. My squad, the J1 Navy team, brings home a win after playing a tough squad from Simi. A birthday is celebrated at local eatery and none of us are ready for the next day¹s event. Sunday ­ October 21st, 2007 A small fire starts that ends up being called the Castaic/Ranch Fire. Smoke is billowing from a small hill range behind our house. During the day the smoke looks fairly innocuous. We have a coaches meeting later in the afternoon to discuss next weeks opponent and before the meeting ends, the smoke in the distance has become darker, thicker and ominous. I received a call from