Amador Valley football will enter the 2022 season with four home games, the fewest in school history, excluding the 2020 and 2021 seasons under the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For many Amador football players who expected to play five to six home games like previous years, this change comes as a disappointment. Home games invigorate players, who tend to feed off the supportive energy from home crowds to give them more strength and motivation in game plays. 

“Honestly, it’s kind of sad. I do wish there were a lot more home games. I think we really benefit from [an] energy-perspective, from the crowd and from the Don Squad particularly… when the crowd gets really loud, [that] makes it a lot easier to give it our all,” said varsity football player Jacob Cazella (‘23). 

While most students are disappointed about the low number of home football games, they resolved to make the most of each game and bring peak energy to the stands this season. 

“Honestly, [we’ll] make [the season] more hyped because you only have [four] games to make the most of it, so I think it’ll definitely bring up the stakes. It’ll also help get more spirit at basketball and other sports games later in the year,” said Don Squad student advisor Aubrie Asbery (‘23). 

Don Squad will lead the student crowd section at football games on Amador’s Walker Field, with king and queen Scott Garman (‘23) and Leah Lozano (‘23) in charge. Walker Field’s electric atmosphere largely results from lively interactions between Don Squad and the fans.

“We have 15 Don Squad members this year…. They [will] have megaphones, t-shirt cannons, a whiteboard, [and] speakers so they’re just going to be leading the crowd and hopefully it’ll be fun,” said Asbery.

The number of home games is not a topic of discussion in Amador’s locker room, however. Football team members have noticed a significant level of high focus, not allowing distractions from their central goal of winning. 

“It’s a really resilient bunch and I think that they’ll be able to overcome the struggles of having to travel so often… but from what I see, it doesn’t matter if it’s home [or] away, [the] team’s just going to focus on beating whoever they have next,” said team manager Aarav Kakad (‘24).

Be sure to cheer on the Dons at all the home games this season: 9/16 vs Granada, 10/7 vs Clayton Valley Charter, 10/28 vs De La Salle, and 11/4 vs California High School.