The recent wildfire caused Palisades Charter High School to shift to virtual learning and forced some students to relocate. Consequently, many student athletes transferred to new schools to play for different teams.
Sophomore Berlin McCoy, a goalkeeper on Pali’s girls junior varsity soccer team, was forced to flee her home in the Palisades after the fire and now lives in Newport Beach. She currently attends Corona Del Mar High School and plays soccer for the school.
“I can’t even pick what I miss most [about the Palisades team],” she said. “I miss all the players, my friends, the staff and coaches – all of it.”
Despite no longer playing with her friends and coaches on the Pali soccer team, McCoy said that she feels welcome at Corona Del Mar.
“[My new teammates] have been really supportive and friendly, which is great because it’s really hard to make friends when you’re at a new school where everyone’s already been together,” she said.
Because many student athletes impacted by the fires, like McCoy, opted to transfer to new schools, some sports teams have been left without some of their key players. Track and field head coach Claudius Shropshire said that he misses many vital runners who transferred to other schools.
“I’ve lost people that scored high in the city meets and have been league champions,” he said. “I’ve also lost some new people that I thought had a lot of potential.”
Shropshire expressed his understanding of the impact the fires have had on the lives of his runners, drawing from his own past experiences. He had relatives who were displaced by the Eaton fire and endured the Baldwin Hills fire in 1985.
These experiences have shown him that “the personal effects [of fires] are real” and has allowed him to understand how his athletes feel.
Shropshire said that he has helped some runners in the transition to new track teams in order to help them feel comfortable competing in a new team environment.
“I have personally contacted several coaches from other schools that people have transferred to from my track team, and those coaches are welcoming them,” he explained.
Shropshire said that he’s working toward a return to normalcy by continuing his team’s regular routine, despite their loss of players and their move to a temporary training facility at West LA College. He hopes to encourage his remaining runners to stay motivated and move forward.
“It’s all about getting stronger and becoming a better person from [the fires],” Shropshire said.
