Published
4 months agoon
The Tongue River High School football team is set to resume their season, now that things with the Elk Fire have settled down to some degree in their neighborhood.
Last week the school shut down and all practices and games were canceled, because of the possibility of evacuation.
Quarterback Carter Maslowski says this is not how he envisioned his senior season.
“Definitely been a crazy year, having already missed the one game out of my season, and then this fire, completely taking a whole week of practice away and then as a senior, it’s just a big deal. It’s your last year, you don’t get all these practices back, but it’s definitely been a pretty crazy year. I didn’t expect a lot of this stuff to happen this year.”
The good news is with 3 games to go, the Eagles have not been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
Maslowski says the trick is to shake off the rust.
“I think just pushing our intensity harder than it ever has been. It’s going to be a lot harder definitely, because we have all these distractions because of the fire, it’s going to be hard to get outside, because of air quality, but I think just pushing to the best limit that we can with what we have right now, is the best way we can prepare ourselves for the playoffs, and to getting to that point in the season.”
Coach Steve Hanson says as an athlete and coach you never want to see a forfeit happen.
However he knows the situation is beyond anyone’s control, and family safety takes priority over the game.
“The forfeit is a bitter pill to swallow. I’m not entirely sure I’m over it yet, just don’t want to see an opportunity taken away from the team, but it was the right decision made by our administration to focus on the safety of our community over activities and I completely understand that. Just the competitor in me and understanding how much every game means and especially down the stretch for playoff implications being a conference game and for our seniors, just to have that extra opportunity and for the rest of the team to get to play 1 game.”
Tongue River is scheduled to play their homecoming game this Friday vs. Wheatland at 6pm.
Coach Hanson says if the air quality on Friday is not good enough to play in, a plan to relocate the game is being worked on.