CHICO, Calif. _ The Paradise High Bobcats began trickling into the Chico High School gym a little before 9 a.m. Thursday for their first basketball practice since the Camp fire razed their hometown.
Out of 15 girls and two coaches, only one had a house that was still standing.
Sheila Craft, the Bobcats varsity coach, was explaining the situation to Gina Snider, her Chico High counterpart. But first there was a very long hug, and some tears.
"We don't know what it's going to look like," said Craft, whose house is gone. "We don't know what school's going to look like. But we're sure going to try to have a season."
Basketballs echoed in the cavernous gym, as the girls dribbled down the shiny wooden court. Well-aimed balls swished through the nets. There were happy cries and swinging ponytails and somehow the girls were able to ignore the swirling ash outside, the cement-colored sky, the salmon-colored disc of a smoke-tinged sun.
"We're staying at a cousin's house in Chico," Tessa Lawrie told junior varsity coach Michaella Gonzales. Lawrie, who is 47, has lost her home in Paradise. Her 15-year-old daughter is running down the court. Gonzales, 28, teaches at Paradise Elementary School. Her campus and her Magalia home have burned to the ground.
"We're staying there with my mom and stepdad," Lawrie continued. "They lost their house as well. One big happy family having a slumber party. We've had 10 every night for the last week. Along with three cats, two dogs, a hamster, a rabbit."
The fish tank didn't make it out.
"We have to keep smiling and going through the motions," Lawrie said. "We're thankful we're alive. Thankful that we got out and we have our kids. They need some sort of normalcy right now. Their whole world has been turned upside down. Most of them couldn't grab anything. They were at school. They have the clothes on their backs."
Anne Stearns, PHS's athletic director, arrived. She was one of the lucky ones. She lives in Chico and still has a house. She talked about survivor guilt and about the haven she can offer the athletes who have no place to stay. Most nights there are at least 10, an ever-changing cast of couch-surfing high schoolers.
"I have 200 athletes (at PHS)" Stearns said. "I know of five who have houses standing. Of those five, you think about it, do they really have homes? Homes in a landscape of just barren ... " She paused. "Ash. What kind of a house is that?"
Stearns talked about a volleyball player who's been wearing the same clothes for the past six days, laundering them occasionally in Stearns' washing machine. The girl has a house. And feels terrible about it.
"She's wearing flip-flops," Stearns said. Sure, she has a house, but she can't get to it or any of her belongings because authorities are still looking for remains and putting out spot fires. "We're giving shoes (to) everyone. She says, 'I don't need anything.'"
The overnight low is in the 30s in Chico. And all she has on her feet are flip-flops.
By 9:30 a.m., Craft called a team meeting before practice could begin in earnest. The girls sat at the edge of the court, faces raised, expectant. A clutch of parents stood at the edges of the group. The good news: Of the three women's basketball teams at Paradise High _ varsity, junior varsity and freshman _ all the players have been accounted for. No one knows when they'll be in class together again. There's been a Paradise diaspora.
Still.
"We will have a basketball team," Craft said. "We will have games as long as everybody is wanting to stay and play. Parents, don't worry about transportation. We have so many teachers who don't have work. They'll drive you."
She talked about logistics, when there will be practices, how to get information and transportation and clothes. When the first game will be, Nov. 27 against Lassen High in Susanville.
Every game this season will be an away game. Even if it's supposed to be a home game. Paradise High is still standing. But there's not much else left in the town of 26,000 or so.
Still.
"The season is not about winning anything, doing anything great," Craft said. "It's about us staying together. We can't lose a whole season of learning."
She teared up.
"Our goal for basketball is to love basketball. If you love basketball, you're really going to love it. For right now, this is about what we have."
Nino Pinocchio, former football coach at Paradise High and Butte College, echoed Craft's sentiment. His daughter, Jasmine, 15, is at practice with a broken toe. It doesn't matter. She's still there.
"You are bringing smiles to people's faces," he said. "Go out there. Work hard. Get better. That's what the community needs us to do."
And then there's a kind of Cinderella moment in the midst of all the devastation.
Rheann Colwell, a 16-year-old junior, came to practice in black jeans, a black T-shirt and sandals. Her home in Paradise is a pile of ash. What clothes she could grab before evacuating were in Weaverville, at her grandparents' house.
She raised her hand at the end of the meeting. She needed shoes.
Craft kicked off her black slip-ons. They were size 9.5, too big. Snider handed over her red Chuck Taylor All Stars. Size 7.5, too small. Kylee Weinbarger, 15, ran to her bag and returned with another pair of well-worn Chucks.
These were white, well, sort of white, size 8.5, a perfect fit.
Practice began.
