When Berkeley High School junior Lenka Simon ran for the Berkeley High School Site Council at the end of their freshman year, they said they weren’t entirely sure what they were running for.

A gray smoke cloud loomed over the Bay Area in mid-September, painting the sky gray and blocking the hills from sight. Wildfires in Northern California and Oregon sent smoke down to Berkeley, with air quality reaching 130 on the Air Quality Index according to Berkeleyside, levels considered unhealthy for those with pulmonary conditions.

According to Robin Van der Vegt, a co-athletic director at Berkeley High School, prior to COVID-19, football and volleyball games at BHS often had a few hundred attendees at each game.

On Friday, Sept. 8, the Berkeley High School Yellowjackets faced De Anza High School in their first home game of the season, defeating them by a score of 41-14.