It was announced on Tuesday (Sept. 15) that the CIF Central Coast Section and the administration at Serra High of San Mateo have reached an agreement so that both parties can move forward in the aftermath of last season’s forfeiture of a CCS Open Division consolation round football game.
When initial penalties against Serra were levied, the CCS handed out a two-year ban from the football playoffs. The agreement announced on Tuesday reduces that to a one-year hiatus.
Here is the full release through the CCS and made through CCS Commissioner Emeritus Nancy Lazenby-Blaser, who retired last summer and was replaced by current CCS Commissioner Dwayne Morgan.
The Central Coast Section (CCS) of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) and the Junipero Serra High School administration are happy to announce that they have reached a resolution to the dispute regarding Serra’s forfeiture of a CCS Consolation football playoff game last year. The penalty for the football program is fixed at one year, and the parties have agreed on an approach whereby probationary status for all other sports will be lifted by October 2015. Serra’s schoolwide athletics program is now considered to “in good standing.” Both sides have agreed to move forward in the spirit of mutual respect and cooperation, in order to achieve their common goal of supporting the best values and outcomes of high school athletic competition.
If no agreement such as the one arrived at had been made, it’s likely that Serra would have pursued the courts in an effort to have the penalties reduced or eliminated.
This year’s Serra football team has begun with a loss to De La Salle of Concord and then got a win over Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks. Based on the agreement, the Padres will not be eligible for this year’s CCS playoffs and therefore will be ineligible for any CIF state bowl games. They are eligible to be in the final state rankings, however, and could be ranked higher than the eventual CCS Open Division champion if it were a team that they were to have beaten head-to-head.
2 Comments
Sad day for the kids. It’s unfortunate that the Sr players are impacted the most. Good job adults!
Place blame on the Adults at Serra, they were the one who felt the game wasn’t important enough to play. Why do the schools in that conf. feel they can play when they want.