Paraclete High School Football Player Isaiah Navarro Gains Nationwide Profile After Tweeting Angrily At Newsom
LANCASTER (CBSLA) — A frustrated tweet fired off at Gov. Gavin Newsom may have changed the trajectory of Paraclete High School football player Isaiah Navarro's life.
With high school sports competitions postponed indefinitely in California, football player Isaiah Navarro was getting angry that his year was looking more and more like a bust. So he joined the chorus of increasingly angry people tweeting at the California governor.
"Zero offers, zero looks, zero commitments, zero time on campus, zero homecoming, zero prom, zero traditional graduation. What a wasted final year of school. Worked hard and dedicated for absolutely ZERO. Big shout out to @GavinNewsom! You got what you wanted," he wrote.
"It's hard to put everything together and work out, put everything on the field, your heart and dedication, and something happening out of nowhere, and be like, 'nope, you're not going to have a season," he said.
The tweet caught fire online with other student athletes and adults angry with California's ongoing coronavirus closures and restrictions. The tweet posted on Feb. 3 has since gotten more than 2,000 replies, 13,000 retweets, and nearly 60,000 likes, and led to interviews on national news programs.
"I looked and couldn't believe how many retweets it had," Dean Harrington, Paraclete High School's head football coach, said.
Harrington said he was sympathetic to his players' frustration.
"They just want a chance to play," he said. "They see the success other states are having playing sports, football. I think over 40 states have played and completed their seasons."
But while most tweets get people in trouble, this particular case has raised Navarro's profile with recruiters.
"My future is bright now," he said. "Talking with coaches, seeing some coaches have took [the] time to view my film and my play on the field."
And all may not be lost yet for California's high school football players. New infections, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19 are on a downward trajectory throughout the state, which has lifted a regional stay-at-home order and allowed restaurants to reopen outdoor dining and business to increase their capacity.
CIF's Southern Section may have canceled all fall sports playoffs. But CIF has not yet fully canceled fall sports, which were pushed into the spring season last summer because of the pandemic.
According to the CIF's guidelines, football may resume if a county reaches the state's orange tier, indicating moderate spread. However, most counties in California remain in the purple tier, the strictest phase of reopening.
