Central Valley high school football returns, some games canceled due to COVID cases

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- After months away from the gridiron, high school football is back in the Central Valley.

It's been 16 months, but Thursday night, the defending state champion Central High School kicked off a spring-shortened season against Clovis High School.

It was a bit of a different atmosphere at Lamonica Stadium.

The only fans in attendance were family members of the players, who had to sit in separate pods, six feet apart, on the bleachers.

Action News spoke with Grizzlies Head Coach Kyle Biggs about his team returning to the field.

"First game in years, and we're just excited, man, excited for the kids. I'm really happy for these seniors. They get an opportunity to wear the gear and wear the jersey one more time to represent us," Biggs said. "And it doesn't matter how many games we get. We're just excited to be playing and happy to be playing and together again."

When it was all said and done, Central beat Clovis in a close one, 35 to 31.

While those two teams got to return to play last night, several other schools are having to cancel games due to positive COVID-19 cases within their program.

The following games were canceled:

Madera and Hoover were unaffected by COVID, so they were able to reschedule and are planning on playing tonight.

Farmersville canceled their matchup with Lindsay as well as next week's contest with Corcoran.

There are no plans to make up those games.

Several other teams received the green light meaning Friday Night Football is back for:

Our cameras will be at games across the Valley. Stephen Hicks and Bri Mellon will have all the action tonight at 11:15 pm after Action News Live at Eleven.