Lake Tahoe Community College Soccer Teams Evacuate, Plan To Continue Tournament Season

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The flames of the Caldor Fire are raging toward their home turf, but Lake Tahoe soccer teams they've got a lot to play for.

The Lake Tahoe Community College soccer teams say they won't let the fire hold them back. They evacuated last week, and are now holed up in a Sacramento Hotel.

Coach Jeremy Evans is calling it, "Tahoe on Tour." It's been twenty months since his teams had a game, now they're forced to take their talents on the road, vowing to keep the season going despite the fire threatening their home turf.

Tuesday, the Lake Tahoe Coyotes are scrounging up practice space at American River College, after being forced from their home field by the threat of fire.

For Coach Evans, he says the magic is in "the details," telling his team to focus on the little moments on the field.

Those moments give his players, like freshman Hannia Medina, a distraction from what's happening at home. Her hometown is South Lake Tahoe.

"I'm very devastated, it's nothing short of a tragedy, it's my home it's all I've ever known," said Medina.

Coach Evans knew the evacuation order was coming to campus.

Covid cut their entire season last year, he says he was determined to find a way to let this team play.

"I'm not going to let a fire strip them of what could be an amazing student-athlete experience," said Coach Evans.

So he started working on a backup plan. He told his students, to grab everything they could, and they left.

For some players, it didn't seem real.

"Whatever you left, you can't go back, because you can't get back in," she said.

He found a hotel in Sacramento and bused them out, not knowing what they'd return to. The team will play in Sacramento and in Los Angeles this week, but after that, Coach Evans doesn't have an answer.

"We're just trying to live in the moment right now because the reality is the long-term moment doesn't look great for Lake Tahoe," Evans said.

Living in the moment, and day-by-day, win or lose, they know what they're playing for.

"Especially in Tahoe right now, hope is pretty important," said Evans.