Elk Fire Near Tongue River HS Affecting Football Practice

As a result of the Elk Fire burning about 5 miles away, the Tongue River High School Football team is feeling the effects of the blaze both on and off the field.

School was closed on Monday (September 30th) for safety reasons, and as a result, practice had to be canceled as well.

Head Coach Steve Hanson says the team has been sympathetic to players who have had to miss a practice because they may have had to evacuate their home or the home of a family member.

As for those that have been able to make it to practice, that has been a challenge unto itself.

“The air quality was terrible, I had a number of times I had to brush falling ash off of my play card, to call the next play, so trying to be mindful of the boys’ health and keep that to a minimum, so lots of moving parts there and trying to just treat the situation with the proper respect and severity it deserves, but also trying to get ready to win a football game.”

US Highway 14 is currently closed, and the road closure gate is right next to the football field.

Coach Hanson says many motorists are driving up to the gate, pulling over and are getting out of their cars to take pictures of the fire and are looking just over where the Eagles are practicing, and that’s not the only distraction going on.

“I’ll be honest, there are days when it’s hard to keep young mens’ attention in the game of football, simply because they are 16 years old, but when you’ve got multiple helicopters flying over the field, doing water drops on live fire that you can see the active flame on the mountain side, I have definitely had better practices. It was something. It was pulling all of our attention. The helicopter would come over the top and the offensive line couldn’t hear the cadence from the quarterback due to the noise and then I’m trying to coach up something and half of the team is watching a helicopter of a different type do a water dip on a pond, and then you literally see flame kick up and the smoke change and the winds change and it’s a wild atmosphere.”

Friday’s Tongue River at Upton-Sundance football game has been postponed.

A makeup date is to be announced.