Most everyone knew Serra High would be penalized for its refusal to play a consolation football playoff game against Milpitas last season. As it turns out, the penalty is a stiff one.
According to a release sent late Thursday afternoon from the Central Coast Section, the Padres will:
--Not be able to participate in the CCS football playoffs in 2015 or 2016.
--have their athletic program put on probationary status for one year (pending approval by the board of managers).
--have to pay restitution for lost gate revenues, lost monies incurred by the Milpitas snack bar and for wages to officials who did not have a chance to work the game.
The two-year football playoff ban is significant as Serra is a CCS football power that has won back-to-back West Catholic Athletic League co-titles and claimed the 2013 section Open title and played for that season's CIF-State Northern California title, losing a close game to Del Oro.
Serra is a prominent school athletically and otherwise. Such former pro athletes as Jim Fregosi, Lynn Swann, Barry Bonds, Gregg Jefferies, Tom Brady and David Bakhtiari, among others, played football at the all-boys, Catholic institution.
According to the release sent by CCS commissioner Nancy Lazenby Blaser, the sanctions against Serra emanate from an "exhaustive month-long investigation that found Serra violated section and CIF bylaws when it unilaterally decided to withdraw from the December 5, 2014 Football Open Division consolation championship playoff game against Milpitas High School."
Wrote Lazenby Blaser in a letter sent to Serra: “The very nature of interscholastic competition is founded on respect, commitment to team, school, league, community and also to each of your team’s opponent’s. Fulfilling your commitments to your opponents and playing your best ... is the standard of commitment acceptable to the member schools of the CIF and CCS found in our Six Pillars of Good Character, Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship.”
Serra will have an opportunity to appeal the decision, according to CCS.
The section did not accept Serra's explanation of withdrawing from the consolation bracket for safety purposes, fearing someone would get hurt in what it considered a meaningless game.
Said the release from CCS:
The Commissioner found that Serra withdrew from the consolation championship game following a loss in the first round of the CCS Open Division and after winning the first round of consolation play. While the school claimed safety concerns, school officials acknowledged the team would have continued playing if they had been vying for a finish higher than fifth place.
The Commissioner’s sanctions against Serra were based on numerous factors, including:
-- By quitting in the middle of the consolation bracket playoffs, Serra “knowingly decided to disregard its commitment to complete scheduled competitions . . . This decision caused Serra to violate the bylaws of the CIF and the CCS Board of Managers and its member schools.”
--Allowing school leaders to determine that it need not continue with scheduled competitions when a school decides that such a competition is not important enough to play, undermines the very foundation of an organization like the CCS, formed by its member schools.”
--If Serra was concerned with the playoff format and had safety concerns based on its team composition, it should not have agreed to enter the playoffs thereby excluding another team desiring to participate.
--Serra’s actions were unfair to all the other teams competing in the playoffs – as well as another team that could have taken Serra’s place in the CCS football playoffs.
Said Lazenby Blaser via release: “While I take no enjoyment from handing down these sanctions, it is the duty of the Commissioner to uphold the integrity of interscholastic athletics and the bylaws as enacted by the CCS member schools. Today’s announcement is a reminder that our member schools establish our rules and agree to follow them in order to protect the integrity of high school athletics in our section.”
Serra coach Patrick Walsh issued his own statement Thursday evening regarding his decision and what will happen moving forward:
"The reason why it was so difficult to make the decision that we did was because of the potential sanctions for our football team in 2015," said Head Football Coach Patrick Walsh. "However, I stand behind my decision to this day and will never feel otherwise. The decision was made in consultation with and the full support of the Serra administration. At the time of my decision, I only had the best interest of our players' health in mind. At the time I was making the decision I knew my only regret was that I should have made this determination sooner. Moving forward, we will carefully review the document from CCS and will explore our options regarding a possible appeal."
Walsh was against the much-debated consolation round -- instituted for the 2014 season -- from the beginning. Before the season he wondered aloud to Prep2Prep what would happen if Serra and Valley Christian met in the consolation round and both teams decided to take a knee 96 times. The published comments reportedly did not go over well.
Walsh said in the days after the forfeit he got a strong feeling during a consolation-opening victory against Palma that playing the consolation games was the wrong thing to do. Said Walsh at the time: “With every snap against Palma I was saying ‘This is so wrong,'” Walsh said. “On the first play of the Palma game — it wasn’t malicious or anything — but Leki Nunn was horse-collared. He wasn’t hurt, but it ate at me.”
Walsh said in the days after the forfeit he woke up in the middle of the night the day of the Milpitas game and made the decision not to play -- a decision he said took much deliberation.
“In a perfect world it would have been made way before (the day of the game) and I regret it wasn’t done sooner," Walsh said at the time.
It's clear from the reaction of observers around the CCS that there are no winners in all of this.
Said Milpitas mom Sandy Scrempos who helps with the concessions there: "It (the sanctions) had to be done. I feel bad for the (Serra) kids. But I still believe that what (the Serra program) did was wrong. It was not fair to our team and to our seniors. If they didn't agree with the way the playoffs were set up, they shouldn't have (participated) at all. The whole thing is unfortunate."
Said Los Gatos coach Mark Krail: "Without knowing all of the details, the word was there would be some ramifications and obviously CCS made good on that part of it. I assume there's some sort of appeal process and that Serra will appeal."
Offered Pete Lavorato, coach of the 2014 CCS Open Sacred Heart Prep team: "I feel badly for the (Serra) coaches and players. I don't know all of the details of it and it's hard, but I guess a judgment had to be made one way or another. It's tough, but it is what it is."
