Principal Suggests Changes in Wake of Litigation

BUENA PARK —  As protesters demonstrated outside the Sequoia Athletic Club Thursday, Huntington Beach High School Principal Gary Ernst offered the Southern Section general council several recommendations he said were “based from the experience and pain” of last November’s litigation battle.

Ernst said his family has been harassed, his home vandalized and his life threatened after Huntington Beach’s football team forfeited eight victories, a share of the Sunset League title and a berth in the Division I playoffs for using an ineligible player.

Ernst, who represented the Sunset League at the meeting, recommended final eligibility checks for students before the first league game rather than after the last league game.

Ernst also recommended an appeal process for principals involved in an eligibility case before the playoffs “to show support without going to the courts.”

“I was asked to join in litigation by our booster club,” Ernst said of November’s litigation, “but I’m a part of the CIF (Southern Section) and can’t sue myself. I was caught in the middle. There are some who feel I didn’t support the school.”

Sunset League principals ordered Huntington Beach to forfeit its victories following its league finale when it was discovered that starting right tackle David Roman did not reside with his legal guardian within the school’s attendance area.

The subsequent Superior Court restraining order, which stated that the Southern Section may not enforce its decisions to penalize a school for using an ineligible player, set off suits by Savanna and La Puente high schools against the Southern Section last November involving eligibility cases that ultimately threatened the section’s existence.

Several Huntington Beach boosters demonstrated outside Thursday’s meeting, carrying banners that read: “Let’s Not Forgot 1989” and “Why Should Kids be Punished for Adults’ Mistakes?”

About a dozen players sat through the meeting and another booster, had to be physically escorted from the room when he became unruly.

“I apologize for the misguided efforts from some well-meaning, independent parents,” Ernst said. “They do not reflect the school, league or district. This is the type of passion and emotion that athletics can generate among some parents in our schools.”

Tom Jacobson, Corona del Mar principal and president of the executive committee, said schools’ problems should be handled within the Southern Section and not in the courtrooms.

“Our rules are the evolution of 75 years of history,” Jacobson said. “We have to educate our public, our boosters, our parents as to how our rules are made and enforced.”

Jacobson also called for a system of monitoring the eligibility of athletes in which the leagues would check each member school. Jacobson also suggested an emergency response committee to deal with late-season forfeitures and the playoff groupings.

Bill Brand, Trabuco Hills principal, called the eligibility issue “a dreaded disease we must face and act upon.” Brand called for the leagues to share ideas on methods of monitoring the eligibility of players to avoid future forfeits.

The council voted to establish a symposium to educate member school’s booster clubs and collectively create new methods of checking the eligibility of athletes beginning in the fall.

Council Notes

The Southern Section will lose $125,000 in corporate sponsorship if Coca-Cola and Reebok decline to renew current contracts with the State CIF. The State CIF figures to lose $90,000 in operating costs for its playoffs for the second consecutive year, yet administrators approved an item that expands the State Cross-Country Championships in Fresno from three to four divisions beginning next year. . . . The semifinal rounds in the 1990 football playoffs will be staggered to Friday and Saturday nights in all divisions after a successful move in five divisions this year that helped increase attendance 25%. . . . An item to ban alumni games involving students and graduates was tabled. . . . County schools have yet to receive a master schedule from basketball assigner Louie Fuentes, but the first-year administrator received 505 changes for boys’ and girls’ games in the opening two weeks of the season. The changes effected the assignment of 1,010 officials. Schools reported 49 no-shows of officials during the two-week period.