San Diego Prep Review / : Proposal Would Speed Process to Hear Protests

The CIF San Diego Section Board of Managers is expected to rule today on a proposal to streamline the process for handling playoff game protests.

Protests are now decided by the commissioner, but the section’s coordinating council has proposed that decisions be made by a three-member panel.

The commissioner would be a member of the proposed three-member board.

The proposal was made because of controversy after a protest during the 3-A baseball playoffs last year. Valhalla Coach John Marlow protested a loss to Bonita Vista after a substitution was disallowed by the plate umpire.

The protest was forwarded to commissioner Kendall Webb, who upheld the protest but said that the 4-2 victory by Bonita Vista was not affected by the umpire’s mistake.

Marlow, still not satisfied, appealed to the coordinating council, which ordered the game replayed from the point of the protest. Bonita Vista won the protested game, 3-2, which was played three days after the initial contest.

Under the proposal, a coach has until 9 a.m. the next day to lodge a protest. By noon that same day, the coach must submit the protest in writing or it will be disallowed. The board’s decision would be final.

“I wouldn’t say (the proposal) will make things any better,” Marlow said. “I’d say it will be much quicker.”

Said Bonita Vista Coach John Gibbs: “That was frantic last year. That whole ordeal was a rough situation. It looks like this would be a better situation. I just hope this never happens again to somebody.”

Both coaches agreed that the biggest problem was the three-day delay between the initial game and the replay. After winning the protested game, Bonita Vista rushed to USD to play Mount Carmel in the semifinal. Mount Carmel won, 4-1.

“I’m glad that (the section is) making a move,” Gibbs said. “We learn from our mistakes, and it was unfair to our boys.”

Haines vs. Haines: The battle Friday between the Palomar League’s two undefeated teams, Vista and Torrey Pines, also was a father-son matchup. Dick Haines is the coach at Vista. His son, Rik, coaches Torrey Pines.

The week leading to Friday’s game split the family.

“I disowned him,” Dick Haines said. “It was my wife’s birthday Sunday and he came over to say happy birthday. After he did, I chased him out.”

Vista won, 24-6. Dick Haines said it was the toughest game Vista has played all year. And he’s glad it’s over.

“You want to win every league game and I went into it with that idea,” he said. “I felt a little like the guy taking his son to the woodshed to spank him and maybe you will get spanked.”

Dick Haines said coaching against his son was “like looking in a mirror and watching yourself. He had a few changes on defense, which I hadn’t seen before and I might steal them from him.”

No looking back: Morse Coach John Shacklett was forced to make a crucial decision Friday after George Jackson returned a punt 44 yards for a touchdown to cut Point Loma’s lead to 13-12 with 2:48 to play. Shacklett had to choose between attempting the extra point or going for two points and the lead. He decided to let Melvin Maxwell kick. Maxwell tied the game with his extra point.

“I wanted to make sure that we were not any worse off than we were going into game,” Shacklett said. “I thought we would have a pretty good chance with the tiebreaker.” Point Loma won the tiebreaker, 14-13.

Shacklett’s said he had doubts about the chances of making the two-point conversion. Sophomore quarterback Michael Liera was making his first varsity start. The offensive line has been shaky in Morse’s last two games and Shacklett said the play would have been an inside run.

“I wouldn’t have run the option (the staple of the Morse offense) with a sophomore quarterback in there,” Shacklett said. “I felt we could kick the ball for sure; everything else was an if.”

If it is any comfort to Shacklett, the official score goes as a 13-13 tie. The tiebreaker score is used at the end of the season if the teams are tied for a playoff berth.

High School Notes

Point Loma running back John Stanley, who fractured his ankle only a week before, rushed for 68 yards in 16 carries last Friday against Morse. He hadn’t practiced all week, missed the first quarter, but alternated on every offensive play the rest of the game. “I’m a senior and this is Morse. . . . I’ve got to play,” Stanley said. Stanley is expected to start this week against Madison. . . . Chula Vista’s Sione Fehoko, the county’s leading rusher going into Friday’s game against Grossmont, was averaging 192.2 yards a game. He was tackled in the right ankle during the first quarter of the 14-13 victory over Grossmont. He gained only 25 yards in eight carries. “I went to take an X-ray and they said I got a broken bone, but I don’t think so,” he said. “What I’m going to do is just tape it up and be ready to go.” Fehoko said the decision to play this week was left to him. . . . Chula Vista linebacker J. J. Mercado, who scored the winning touchdown with five minutes to go, set a school record with 31 tackles, breaking the record of Paul Palumbo, who had 24 against Sweetwater in 1976. Mercado, rarely used at running back, was forced into action after Fehoko and running back Anthony Garcia were hurt.