ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - Prior to the start of the football season, the Florin Panthers and Valley Vikings didn’t get a chance to run out onto their field under the Friday night lights before having their football seasons canceled.

This decision was due to low roster numbers for both squads, as they were both slated to start their season on Aug. 30, according to the school district..

Panthers head coach Dan Davis noted the low participation during the preview to their season for the Elk Grove Citizen but did not cite this as a disadvantage.

“We’re small in numbers but they definitely will work hard,” Davis said. “They do anything at practice; they don’t know how to quit.”

Just a few weeks after this statement, his team was forced to quit on its season.

Elk Grove Unified School District spokesperson Lori Gerber confirmed the cancellations.

Gerber said seniors on the Panthers squad are being granted the opportunity to transfer schools without a sit-out period in order to play their last high school season.

The Panthers will continue with their junior varsity season and will allow juniors to play on the team.

When contacted by the newspaper in regard to the season cancellation, Davis said, “no comment.”

Student-athletes at Valley High School do not have the same luck, as both varsity and junior varsity football will not be played this season.

Despite this, students have started a petition to bring football back this season and additionally to find them a new coach following the dismissal of their coach.

Gerber said the head coach for the Vikings was dismissed “due to a personnel matter resulting from an investigation.” She did not give a reason for this investigation.

“None of the remaining VHS (Valley High School) football staff were able to take the head coaching position commitment for the entire season,” Gerber said. “The VHS football program also had low turnout of athletes this season and did not have enough athletes to complete a junior varsity or varsity team.”

She noted that Valley High School administration and the athletic director have met with student-athletes and their parents to discuss transfer opportunities.

Not only will this affect the student-athletes but also other groups, as pointed out by a student and cheerleader from Valley High School, Cali Lloyd, in an interview with KCRA 3.

“It’s the cheerleading, our band, ASB, Link Crew, like it kind of takes a village to come together and put all these programs on. So it affects everybody, not just the football team,” Lloyd told KCRA 3.

Lloyd initiated the petition online, which reads, “The school states that the reasoning for the cancellation was due to ‘low participation,’  which is completely false. We have 45 players signed up to play this year and have had less than that in past years but a season has never been cancelled.”

At press time Monday, the petition has 672 signatures of the 1,000 that organizers aim to have.

Jaden Carter, a sophomore at Valley High School, said to KCRA 3, “It caught us by surprise because it came out of nowhere. There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears. We’ve been working for it since last school year, the start of the school year. It’s not fair.”

Also at press time, it was reported by The Sacramento Bee that five seniors have transferred from Valley High School to join the Elk Grove Thundering Herd.

In the 2023-2024 school year, the schools with the lowest enrollment in the Elk Grove Unified School District are Florin and Valley, with Florin’s 1,663 total students and Valley’s 1,631 total students, which can be a contributing factor to low roster numbers.

Both programs have been unable to generate any success in recent years, with Valley having one playoff team in the past 22 years and Florin fielding one playoff team in school history since it opened in 1989.

The teams scheduled to face both programs will receive forfeit victories as the Panthers and Vikings will not take the field this season.