CONCORD — Mt. Diablo has found a home venue for at least its first two football games this season but not on campus after fire destroyed its new field.
Expected to unveil the multimillion-dollar turf on Friday night, the football team will instead play its season opener against Terra Linda at nearby Concord High.
Concord will also be the home venue for Mt. Diablo’s game on Sept. 5 against Vallejo. After that, it’s unclear where the Red Devils will play.
The changes became necessary after fire engulfed the middle of the Concord school’s field on Saturday night. Authorities are investigating to determine the cause of the blaze, which stayed lit until early Sunday morning.
School officials hope the field can be repaired in the next few weeks, which would allow the football team to return to the field for practice and games before the season ends.
The Red Devils scheduled seven of their nine regular-season games at home, including six in a row to begin the year, according to MaxPreps.
“Naturally the first instinct from the kids is that they’re all bummed out,” Mt. Diablo coach Fetuao Mua told the Bay Area News Group on Tuesday. “I think the district’s working really hard to make sure we’re out on our field in the next two, three weeks. So, you know, we don’t expect to be away from home too long.”
Varsity football offensive line coach Rick Camacho examines the charred section of the football field that was destroyed by vandalism at Mt. Diablo High School in Concord, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. School officials stated that the field caught on fire on Saturday evening. Monday afternoon the football team was forced to practice on the adjacent grass field due to the damaged caused by the fire. Players never even got to play on the mutlimillion-dollar turf field which was installed over the summer break. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
For the next two weeks, Mt. Diablo will hold football activities at Concord High, including practices. Should conflicts come up, Principal Markell McCain told this news organization that the school will look into holding games and practices at Diablo Valley College, Los Medanos College or other Mt. Diablo School District facilities.
McCain said he doesn’t want to put a date for when the Mt. Diablo field will be playable. But he and Mua believe the field could be repaired for games this season.
Mt. Diablo’s turf field and track were installed in March at a cost of about $3 million, according to McCain.
McCain said he wasn’t sure if the field was insured – the district handles those decisions – but the school has already started the process to have it repaired.
“We’ve reached out to the contractors who did the field and they’re trying to expedite the recovery order to repair the field,” McCain said. “It might be an issue getting that type of turf because it was high-end turf. So getting that turf delivered to Concord is what I’m hearing is the major hold up.”
Concord police and Contra Costa fire departments are investigating the blaze, McCain said..
Mt. Diablo has cameras that monitor its football field, but McCain said a perpetrator was not seen on video.
“It was so dark, it was 10:30 at night and all we could see was the flickering of a light,” McCain said. “There were other cameras that caught footage that were not directly our cameras, but neighboring cameras. They could be resident cameras and stuff like that. From my understanding, those cameras caught some footage of stuff, so they’re gonna be sharing that with me this afternoon.”
Since the incident, the football team has remained in good spirits. The Red Devils held practice at an adjacent grass field on Monday and had their best prep of the season, Mua said.
Mua hopes to turn the setback into a life lesson for his team.
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“It’s just a little adversity,” Mua said. “This is going to give us a chance to build a little more character, and it’s just another speed bump in the road for us. It’s nothing we can’t handle.
“Life throws you curve balls and sometimes you just have to learn how to roll with the punches. This situation is no different for us. At the end of the day, we still get to play the game we love. It’s sad to say, but there’s bigger problems out there in the real world. So this is just one minor obstacle and it’s actually fueled the kids.”
Improved security at the field will be a big emphasis for McCain as he works in conjunction with the district, including possible nightly guards to watch the field in the coming weeks.
“The big thing I’m going to be pushing for is security for that building. That’s a conversation we need to have,” McCain said. “I think having (night guards) would be nice, but I really think just getting modern fencing around or having security gates like a lot of the other high schools have, would be sufficient.”