{"id":2028739,"date":"2023-09-12T00:06:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T04:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/injuries-growing-pains-cause-saddleback-football-to-forfeit-league-opener\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T00:08:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T04:08:34","slug":"injuries-growing-pains-cause-saddleback-football-to-forfeit-league-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/injuries-growing-pains-cause-saddleback-football-to-forfeit-league-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Saddleback Football forfeits league opener due to injuries and growing pains."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Finjuries-growing-pains-cause-saddleback-football-to-forfeit-league-opener%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2028739&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Building \u200ca Winning Football Program at Saddleback High School<\/h2>\n<p>First-year Coach \u2062Mike Nobles\u2063 knew that building a successful football\u200c program at Saddleback High School in Santa Ana, California, wasn\u2019t going\u200d to \u2063be easy. He\u200c didn\u2019t realize that three games into his tenure, the Roadrunners would be unable\u200c to \u200dfield enough players to compete in \u200btheir\u200d scheduled Orange Coast League opener.<\/p>\n<p>After three consecutive one-sided losses, by a combined score\u2064 of 123\u201316, and a\u200c spate of injuries\u2063 that \u200dleft the team with only 19 healthy players, Saddleback opted to forfeit its \u200cscheduled Sept. 15 contest \u2062against Orange.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt was a\u2063 difficult decision\u2063 just because I\u200d tell my players that I don\u2019t shy away from anybody,\u201d\u200c Mr. Nobles told The \u200bEpoch Times. \u201cI\u2062 would play \u200dMater Dei. I\u2019m a competitor. But when it comes down to having\u2062 to play\u200b players that haven\u2019t \u200bhad a lot of playing time, or having to\u2064 bring up players from the frosh-soph level to fill a team, I \u200dhave to look\u200d at it as if\u200c I were one of those kids\u2019 parents. I \u200chave \u2063to look \u2062at it as a safety \u2062issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Challenges and Safety \u2062Concerns<\/h3>\n<p>In the wake of a 29\u20138 loss \u200bAug. 18 at Godinez, a 35\u20132 defeat Aug. 25 at Century, and a 59\u20136 setback Aug. 31 at La Quinta, the Roadrunners are \u2063missing three players \u200cwho are\u2062 in concussion\u2062 protocol, two who are sidelined with knee injuries and another because of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nba-players-were-right-to-worry-about-a-shortened-offseason-injury-spike-proves-it\/\" title=\"NBA Players Were Right To Worry About A Shortened Offseason, Injury Spike Proves It\">high ankle sprain<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Even coming off a bye week, Saddleback\u200c was too shorthanded to tee it up against perennial Orange Coast \u200cLeague power Orange.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cLast year when we played Orange, we had \u2063three concussions in the game,\u201d Roadrunners athletic director Rob Thompson told The Epoch Times. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t help us \u2062when \u2062they\u2019re the first team in the league that we\u2064 play. \u200cIt\u200d kills the \u200brest of our season, and we\u2019re already having \u2064a bad season. I don\u2019t want to make it worse.\u2063 Half [of] our team is sophomores\u200d who have never played\u200c football before. \u2062We felt\u2064 for the safety of the kids it wasn\u2019t proper \u2063for us to play Orange.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Looking Ahead<\/h3>\n<p>Still \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/injuries-growing-pains-cause-saddleback-football-to-forfeit-league-opener\/\" title=\"Saddleback Football forfeits league opener due to injuries and growing pains.\">awaiting updated medical reports<\/a> on the \u2062injured \u2064players, Saddleback anticipates\u2062 having a deep enough roster for its ensuing game, Sept. 21\u2064 at Calvary Chapel. Next up would be the night everyone has been pointing toward, \u200dSept. 29, when the Roadrunners\u2063 are scheduled to host \u2062Costa Mesa in their long-awaited first game in\u2063 a brand-new, $15\u2062 million-plus football facility on campus.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIf we have to bring up\u2063 some eighth-graders, we\u2019ll play the Homecoming game,\u201d Mr. Thompson said. \u201cWe have to play that game,\u2063 is my \u2062point.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Overcoming Challenges and\u200c Building \u2062for the Future<\/h3>\n<p>Mr. Nobles,\u200c who\u200b inherited a \u200dprogram \u2064that\u200d has gone \u2064winless in\u2063 league play each of its\u200b past three seasons, took over \u200cat Saddleback\u200d last\u200b spring. The \u200blate start negatively\u200b impacted the Roadrunners\u2019 offseason weight training and conditioning programs, and made\u2064 the\u2062 installation of offensive, defensive, and special-teams systems especially challenging.<\/p>\n<p>What once was a roster of more than 30 players dwindled \u2062because of some disciplinary issues, leaving Saddleback particularly \u200bvulnerable to the inevitable health woes that\u2064 are simply a part of football.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI was \u2062optimistic,\u201d Mr. Nobles said. \u201cI\u2063 really thought we could have been 3\u20130 heading into the Orange \u2064game\u2062 if\u2062 we didn\u2019t have\u2062 any injuries. The kids are a\u200c little discouraged that we\u2019re not winning, but I think\u2063 they\u2019re more discouraged by how many \u2064points we\u2019re losing by. I have to take a step \u2064back myself sometimes and say,\u200d \u2018You have a young\u2064 team. Wait until these sophomores are seniors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>While such challenges weren\u2019t hard to predict, what\u2064 Mr. Nobles perhaps did not expect after \u200done season as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/country-celebrates-natl-law-enforcement-appreciation-day\/\" title=\"Country celebrates Nat\u2019l Law Enforcement Appreciation Day\">head coach<\/a> at Northwood in Irvine and \u200bthree more \u200cas an assistant\u2062 at Dana Hills are what he\u200b called \u201ccultural \u200ddifferences.\u201d For \u2063example,\u200b all the\u200c Roadrunners, he said, know \u2062full well who soc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First-year Coach Mike Nobles faced challenges in building a successful football program at Saddleback High School in Santa Ana, California. Unexpectedly, three games into his tenure, the Roadrunners lacked enough players to compete in their scheduled Orange Coast League opener after suffering three consecutive one-sided losses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":2028740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2028739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2028739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2028740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2028739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2028739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2028739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}