One week after traveling up Pacific Coast Highway, Gonzaga players, coaches send thoughts to LA County residents impacted by fires

On Dec. 30, Gonzaga players and coaches rode on the Pacific Coast Highway while traveling from their team hotel in Santa Monica, California, to nearby Malibu for a West Coast Conference opener against Pepperdine.

Roughly one week later, many of the Zags were shocked to see frightening images and videos of the destruction to many of the same homes, structures and hillsides they’d just driven by as a result of the ongoing fires in Los Angeles County.

“I just saw a video of driving to Pepperdine from Santa Monica and all those houses were on fire,” senior forward Ben Gregg said. “We were just there last week making the same drive. I don’t know the highway, but it’s just kind of crazy to think about. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people involved in that, the houses and everybody involved.”

Hours before Gonzaga tipped off against San Diego at the McCarthey Athletic Center, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency with firefighters struggling to contain the Palisades fire that had burned more than 15,000 acres .

The Palisades fire is one of four major blazes impacting Los Angeles County and surrounding areas. More than 2,000 structures had burned and five people had died as of Wednesday night, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Gonzaga’s made multiple trips to L.A. County in recent weeks, traveling to Inglewood to play UCLA at the Intuit Dome on Dec. 28 before making the short bus ride north for the game against Pepperdine.

The Zags played one game back in Spokane last Thursday, but returned to Los Angeles the following day to face Loyola Marymount on Saturday evening at Gersten Pavilion.

Gonzaga’s charter plane brought the team back to Spokane that night, three days before strong Santa Ana winds fueled the Palisades fire. LMU’s campus in the Playa Vista area wasn’t in danger as of Wednesday night, but evacuation warnings were sent out in the Santa Monica neighborhood approximately 7 miles away from where Gonzaga resided for both of its recent road trips.

Just one Gonzaga player, Dusty Stromer, hails from the Los Angeles area. The sophomore guard said before tipoff Wednesday the wildfires hadn’t impacted the Sherman Oaks area where his immediate family members still reside.

San Diego’s roster features six players who list Los Angeles or surrounding cities as a hometown, including Colby Brooks, the former Gonzaga walk-on and Loyola (L.A.) High product who transferred to play for the Toreros this offseason.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few has two colleagues from USA Basketball who’ve been directly impacted by the ongoing Palisades fire, including U.S. Olympic and Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, whose childhood home burned down, forcing Kerr’s mother to evacuate. Chip Engelland, a prominent shooting coach in NBA circles who’s worked with USA Basketball, is also a native of Pacific Palisades.

“On the drive up on the PCH, those landmark restaurants and houses and everything you see all the way up there, I can’t even fathom so close to the ocean they could burn like that,” Few said. “It’s just awful, awful. Prayers go out to everybody that got out of it safe and just got to start building it back. But yeah, awful deal.”