Bye week comes at right time for Le Grand. Bulldogs finished opener with 10 players.

Raul Alvarez said he’s never seen anything like it.

The Le Grand High football coach already entered the season short-handed with a roster of 17 players. The Bulldogs had only 15 healthy for the season opener against Yosemite.

That number shrank early on against the Badgers as three players were injured in the first quarter.

Linebacker Julian Diaz was injured trying to make a tackle early in the game. The Bulldogs then lost quarterback Beto Marquez to a shoulder injury on a running play minutes later. Soon Bubba Lara joined them on the sideline with another injury.

With 15 minutes left in the game, Le Grand had five players out with injuries and were down to just 10 healthy players. So the Bulldogs played the final 15 minutes a man short, losing 25-0.

“It felt like I was in a bad episode of the Twighlight Zone,” said Alvarez, as he saw his players get hurt one by one. “I’ve never been involved in something like that in my 24 years of coaching. I’ve never experienced that.”

Fortunately for the Bulldogs, they have a bye this week. That gives the injured players a couple weeks to heal before the Bulldogs travel to Livingston on Sept. 8. Alvarez said some of them have follow up appointments with their doctors to determine the severity of their injuries.

Alvarez is meeting with administration and parents on Tuesday evening to discuss what to do moving forward. Do they call up players from the junior varsity team if some of the injured players are out for multiple weeks?

“That’s a decision that we’ll have to make,” said Alvarez prior to the meeting. “I’d have to talk with administration and our athletic director. We want to make the best possible solution for both teams.”

At this point, canceling the season is off the table, according to Alvarez.

“I think you have to exhaust all options before you get to that point,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez says the Bulldogs roster has 24 to 25 players on average most seasons. He says this year they lost five players, who transferred from Le Grand. Another two players chose not to play. That left them with a roster of 17 players.

It’s not unheard of for teams to make it through a season with depleted rosters. It happened just last year in the Southern League with Denair. The Coyotes were in title contention late in the season and advanced to playoffs despite a roster of 16 players. Denair was down to 13 healthy players at times last season and still finished at 6-5.

Chowchilla High’s football team broke camp in 2014 with just 19 players and dressed as few as 17 players for some games and still finished with a 6-5 record.

The injuries put Le Grand into scramble mode against Yosemite. After Marquez went down, receiver Marcus Burrola moved to quarterback. As other players got hurt, other players were moved into new positions. On offense Le Grand lined up with five linemen, three receivers, a quarterback and one running back. Defensively they played with three linemen, three linebackers and four defensive backs.

“All we could do was do our best to put the kids into position on offense,” Alvarez said. “You coach them up in between series. On one hand, you’re trying to see what’s going on with the players who are injured. On the other hand you’re trying to find a way to get the other guys to fill in. I’m trying to see what we can do moving forward on both sides of the ball. What plays can we call?”

Alvarez said he was proud of the players who were able to finish short-handed. He said if they had been down to nine players, he feels the players and coaching staff still would have liked to finish the game.

“After the game, I told them their coaches are proud they finished the game,” Alvarez said. “There was a couple times in the second half when we were playing with 10 players that we stopped them from scoring. Our kids played their hearts out.

“It was a long weekend. I was worrying about the guys that were hurt, wondering how they were doing. It’s a good thing we have a bye this week. It couldn’t have come at a better time.”

This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Bye week comes at right time for Le Grand. Bulldogs finished opener with 10 players.."