FRIDAY NIGHT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : Court Grants Jones a Chance to Play

Demetrius Jones, an offensive lineman at Calabasas High who caught the attention of several major college football recruiters despite being allowed to play only one season in high school, was allowed to rejoin his team before Friday night’s game at Nordhoff in Ojai.

Jones, 6-6 and 220 pounds, had been banned from the team by Southern Section officials because he is in his ninth high school semester. California Interscholastic Federation rules allow a student only eight semesters of athletic eligibility.

Jones’ father, Gregory, asked the Southern Section to waive the rule for Demetrius because he never attended fifth grade; he jumped from fourth to sixth while attending public schools in Chicago. Now a senior, Demetrius, 17, repeated the 11th grade at Calabasas because of academic problems.

When the Southern Section refused to grant a waiver from the eight-semester rule in July, the family hired attorney Keith M. Gregory of Newport Beach. He presented Jones’ case in Van Nuys Superior Court on Wednesday. Late on Friday, Judge Martha Goldin issued a preliminary injunction against the CIF and the school, ordering them to allow Jones to rejoin the Calabasas football team.

“It was clear that the CIF didn’t really consider the facts in this specific case,” Gregory said.

Jones was named to the All-Frontier League team following his only season at Calabasas last year. After that season, he received recruitment letters from numerous schools, including USC, UCLA and Nebraska.