Crime & Safety

Mandarins vs. Avocados: La Mesa, Loomis Mayors Vie on Football Game

Art Madrid called Rhonda Morillas to wager on outcome of game: Helix vs. Del Oro High School.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Mayor Art Madrid wore a dark-green shirt with the legend Helix High School Scotties—showing his favorite for Saturday’s state football championship in Carson.

After the invocation, pledge and council reports, Madrid announced: “Today I spoke with the mayor of Loomis, Rhonda Morillas, and we have a friendly wager as to the outcome of the game” between the Helix Highlanders and the Del Oro Golden Eagles of Loomis.

The stakes? 

Loomis is betting a box of “world-famous mandarin oranges,” he said.

And the Jewel of the Hills?

“A box of La Mesa avocados—and I’m going to be looking for neighbors to provide them because we’re not going to lose,” Madrid said to laughter.

Why mandarins?

Morillas explained via email Friday: “In Placer County, we are historically a fruit-producing area, and mandarins are a big part of it.  In the heyday of fruit production, Placer County was known for the fruit we produced as it was shipped from coast to coast by rail.”

In fact, she said, Loomis fruit history still stands downtown.  

“We saved two of the historic fruit sheds, and they house several businesses and community meeting rooms,” she said.  “The local mandarin grower Jim Struble is a Del Oro grad—as is his wife, Jan, and their children.”

The school Helix is facing at 4 p.m. is almost the same age, in fact. Helix was established in 1952, and Del Oro High School was built 52 years ago, Morillas said   

Morillas, however, is no longer mayor.  Town Clerk Crickett Strock said Friday the new mayor—elected by the council week—is Sandra Calvert.

But at the time of Madrid'’s call, Morillas was the bet-maker on behalf of Loomis, a town of 6,400 in Northern California.

Morillas is a fourth-generation resident, she said, “raising the fifth generation in Loomis.  My husband was a third-generation resident and class of 1962 at Del Oro. I graduated in 1968 and our children are class of 2003, 2004 and 2007.”

And the family connections don’t end there.

“My brother and sister are class of 1972 and my brother-in-law class of 1965, plus many cousins, nieces and nephews are all proud graduates of Del Oro,” she said.

Her cousin, Tom Cooper, was the first student body president of Del Oro and the current principal, Dan Gayaldo, is her husband’s cousin, she added.  

“Our roots go back to the beginning of Del Oro, and the community [is] small and close-knit,” she said. 

She says the Loomis motto is “A Small Town is Like a Big Family.”

Of course, she believes Del Oro will win the CIF Division II bowl game—“because of the coaching and the support they receive from the entire community.  The team was given the Key to Loomis at our council meeting Tuesday and the council chambers were packed with supporters from the community.”

The former mayor says local businesses are taking turns supporting the team by raising money—giving 30 percent of the proceeds to help defray travel and lodging costs.

A charter bus left for Carson on Thursday night after a sendoff from the school, said Town Clerk Strock. (See Loomis News stories below right.) The 427-mile trip followed Taylor Road toward Interstate 80 to Sacramento and then south on Interstate 5.

Morillas said: “The power of the team comes from the belief and support and love from the community.  They know that whether they win or lose, they will still be our heroes, and we are so proud of them for getting to this stage.”

Unfortunately, she won’t be able to attend the game at the Home Depot Center,  “but I will be watching them on TV Saturday.”

Morillas says she was born and raised in Loomis, and her family had a business downtown from 1915 until 2008, when she sold it and retired. 

“Even though the business was sold, it is still going strong,” she said.  “The name of the business was Nelthorpe and Sons; we were a feed and grain store that evolved through the years by adding and taking away.”

In the end, she said, “we were the largest retail appliance dealer in Placer County. I worked there from 1970 until 2008.”

She also had something else in common with Mayor Madrid—political longevity.

“I was elected to the Loomis Town Council in 1992 after serving three years as town clerk,” she said. “Now I am in my fifth consecutive term and am thinking of running again next year.”

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