Paradise football team qualifies for playoffs a year after fire - Los Angeles Times
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Year after devastating fire, Paradise football team qualifies for playoffs

Paradise running back Brenden Moon, center, celebrates with teammates after the Bobcats' season-opening win.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
By Bill Plaschke
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PARADISE, Calif. â€”  A year after their town was leveled by the deadliest wildfire in California history, the unbeaten Paradise Bobcats football team is headed to the playoffs.

In Division 3 pairings announced Saturday by the CIF Northern Section, fourth-seeded Paradise will host fifth-seeded Live Oak in a first-round game Friday at 7 p.m. at Om Wraith Field.

Playing a makeshift schedule with no league affiliation because of uncertainty over their school enrollment and team roster size, the Bobcats went 10-0 and outscored opponents 469-73.

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This time last year, the Bobcats forfeited out of the playoffs after the Nov. 8 Camp Fire devastated their town and killed 85 people.

PARADISE, CALIFORNIA AUGUST 1, 2019-Paradise players practice in the late afternoon during football camp in preparation for the upcoming season. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

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Plaschke: Paradise High football program finds healing among the ashes of the Camp fire

After losing everything in the deadly Camp Fire last year, the Paradise High football team leans on camaraderie and community to rebuild their lives.

“A year ago at this time, I didn’t even know if we would have a football team this season,†Paradise coach Rick Prinz said. “To be back in the playoffs is amazing, but we’re not satisfied. After all everyone has been through, after seeing our hopes cut short last year, this team wants to bring Paradise the state championship it deserves.â€

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Bill Plaschke

Bill Plaschke, an L.A. Times sports columnist since 1996, is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. He has been named national Sports Columnist of the Year nine times by the Associated Press, and twice by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards. He is the author of six books, including a collection of his columns entitled “Plaschke: Good Sports, Spoilsports, Foul Balls and Oddballs.†Plaschke is also a panelist on the popular ESPN daily talk show, “Around the Horn.†He is in the national Big Brothers/Big Sisters Alumni Hall of Fame and has been named Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Big Brothers/Big Sisters as well as receiving a Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center. Plaschke has appeared in a movie (“Aliâ€), a dramatic HBO series (“Luckâ€) and, in a crowning cultural moment he still does not quite understand, his name can be found in a rap song “Females Welcome†by Asher Roth.

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