Belmont Is Stripped of Soccer Title

Belmont High was stripped of its City Section boys’ soccer championship Wednesday and could lose its Northern Conference football title after a rules committee found one of its athletes ineligible.

It is the first time in the City Section’s 24-year history of soccer that a school has lost its title.

Belmont could lose its football title, depending on the number of games the ineligible athlete--Octavio Calvillo--played last fall.

Because the violation was discovered at the end of the season, no school will be awarded the soccer title. Bell High, which lost, 1-0, to Belmont in the final March 5, will remain the runner-up.

“This is pending an appeal that Belmont may make,” said Barbara Fiege, City Section athletic commissioner. “But I don’t expect they’ll make it.”

Fiege, who was Belmont’s athletic director for eight years before becoming commissioner last October, said she spoke to school officials Wednesday and was told they were not going to appeal.

Calvillo, Belmont’s starting fullback, violated section rules by competing in his ninth semester, one more than allowed. Calvillo skipped an academic year because of family problems when he was enrolled at Los Angeles University High. When he transferred to Belmont last fall, a petition to extend his eligibility was not completed.