When the Detroit Lions stepped up and offered its NFL Ford Stadium to be used as the emergency home field of the Minnesota Vikings Monday night following the collapse of the Minneapolis Metrodome roof, it was remarkably similar to a situation here just 48-hours earlier.
by Scott Hettrick
In a gesture befitting the holiday spirit, the Arcadia school district offered to let neighboring high school football rival Monrovia use Arcadia High School‘s newly renovated Salter Stadium to host Whiiter Christian in the CIF-Southern Section Mid-Valley Division championship game Saturday night.
Less than a week earlier, Monrovia was looking forward with great anticipation to hosting the CIF title game on their own campus. Like Arcadia, Monrovia’s stadium was also renovated this year. The school and town were very proud. And what a climax to a great year — the Mustangs 12-2 record had them positioned to cap the season with potentially the school’s first CIF championship in 75 years. They had tried and failed nine times before dating back to 1935 and as recently as last year. This time it appeared everything was falling into place, and the capper would be to host the CIF Final against the top-ranked Heralds at Monrovia’s new home stadium.
But just four days before the big game, CIF officials and the athletic director and principal of Whittier Christian, coming off their best season in decades at 12-2, toured Monrovia’s stadium and determined that the visitor’s bleachers were too low for fans to be able to see over the players and coaches. CIF declared Tuesday that Monrovia’s stadium was inadequate to host the title game.
It was too late to try to raise or install additional bleachers as planned for next year in time to get required safety approvals by Saturday. Nearby Citrus College was unavailable. That’s where Arcadia comes in. At just a few miles away, Salter Stadium was probably the next most convenient option for the teams and fans. It would also allow far more fans to see the game in person, as Arcadia’s stadium holds about 1,500 more people than Monrovia’s capacity of about 3,000 (2,500 for the home team).
Monrovia High School fans cheer their Wildcats to a CIF championship while sitting in the Arcadia Apaches bleachers.
Of course, Arcadia school district superintendent Dr. Joel Shawn first did his due diligence internally — there were no activities scheduled for the field (although there was a major tour and open house of all the new buildings on the high school campus a couple hours earlier that drew about 700 people who were still there as the Monrovia football team and support people began arriving); and the district would receive full reimbursement from Monrovia for all incurred expenses (custodial, maintenance, etc.). So he quickly gave his blessing. Arcadia even waived any field usage fees for Monrovia to use the stadium. And there was one financial upside for Arcadia in retaining all profits from the concessions sold at the Snack Shack, which were prepared by the school district’s food services department on short notice. Concession sales on a night like this would not be insignificant, as crowd estimates put the number in attendance at somewhere between 4,500 – 5,500.
If the change of venue dampened the spirits of Monrovia fans even slightly, it wasn’t obvious to observers who reported widespread exhuberance throughout the evening as the No. 2-seeded Wildcats rolled over Olympic League champion Whittier Christian 38-8.
“The basic driver here was to be a good neighbor and to help out Monrovia in an ’emergency’ situation,” said Dr. Shawn. “Who knows when we’ll need a similar favor.” There may not have been any Arcadia fans at our own stadium Saturday night, but I can’t help but feel a twinge of Apache pride. After three-quarters of a century, the Wildcats team and the school were finally able to celebrate their first championship not far from home. And thanks to Arcadia, thousands of Monrovia fans and longtime supporters were able to share the moment.
— By Scott Hettrick