PREP WEDNESDAY : Knowing the Rules and What to Do Can Save Schools Time and Trouble

Bruce Keuning, president of the Southern Section’s Executive Committee, was addressing a group of high school principals at a general council meeting in September.

The message: Principals need to make certain that they and their coaches know the Southern Section rules governing athletics, and the principals need to start taking responsibility for their schools’ actions when rules are broken.

Keuning said the CIF and Southern Section are increasingly being drawn into court, largely because many administrators are not well-versed enough in the rules to head off violations before they occur. And once teams are sanctioned, especially when the fault for the violations might lie with uninformed coaches or administrators, parents of players decide to fight the rulings in court.

“I see this progression where the administrator, who’s the one ultimately responsible to run a high school athletic program, is sometimes not doing the job of stemming the problem,” Keuning said.

“I’ve seen over the years where some of these things (violations of the rules) could have been stemmed right at the start by a principal who had a real hold on his program and basically had the guts to say, ‘Hey, we were wrong, and we better eat this. We’re responsible, and we’ll take what’s ever coming to us.’ ”

Tom Triggs, La Habra High School principal and a member of the Executive Committee, didn’t hesitate when he discovered his football team had used an ineligible player in 4 games last fall.

After reporting the incident, Triggs went to the team’s booster club meeting, explained the infraction and told the parents the school would forfeit those 4 games. The forfeits ultimately denied the school its fifth consecutive league title and the postseason playoffs.

“I thought it was important to go to the parents, explain the rule, explain the violation and tell them we were going to forfeit the games,” Triggs said. “We were all very frustrated, but we had to do the right thing and forfeit the games.

“No one came to me and said, ‘Let’s fight this.’ Sometimes, a better understanding of a situation will help cool things down a little. We have to learn to deal with any problem within the framework of our rules and regulations at our own schools, not in the court room.”

According to Newport Harbor Principal Dennis Evans, most violations occur because of an ignorance of rules.

Evans’ district, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, requires every coach to attend an athletic workshop during which Southern Section rules are reviewed with Commissioner Stan Thomas.

“I don’t think it’s asking too much to know the rules,” Evans said. “Athletics is a big part of our schools, and a principal should be as familiar with the rules as he is with the education code.

“A principal can’t afford to hand off the responsibility of his athletic programs to a vice principal and then only get involved when there’s a crisis situation.”

Dave Jackson, principal at Royal High in Simi Valley since February, found his school already in a “crisis situation” when he arrived. A soccer player at the school had been told by an interim principal that he would maintain his eligibility after competing on a Junior Olympic team in the Soviet Union during Christmas break, even though outside competition during the school season of that sport is against Southern Section rules.

The Southern Section ruled the player ineligible, the athletic director eventually resigned and the soccer team was placed on 2 years probation.

“Nobody at Royal did anything on purpose to break the rules,” Jackson said. “We messed up a procedure. We didn’t do anything sneaky.

“The people here assumed everything was OK.”

But administrators violated a rule by letting the student resume playing after returning from the Soviet Union. Had they gone to the Southern Section before deciding to let the player compete, the incident likely would not have happened.

“I don’t think the boy did anything unethical,” Thomas said. “He made every effort to do what was right. He went to the (interim) principal. The principal basically read the CIF Blue Book (rule book) and said, ‘Sure, go ahead and do it.’ Who can the kid go to if not the principal?”

Jackson said his school administrators learned a valuable lesson.

“Don’t get complacent and don’t assume anything,” he said.

Thomas offers a simple solution to help prevent any athletic problems a high school principal might have to deal with.

“It’s incumbent upon the principal to pick up the phone, call us and say, ‘How does this sound?’ ” Thomas said. “In the case of Royal High, the whole issue dealt with administrators making improper decisions and giving wrong counsel. They took it upon themselves to say yes before checking.

“Most superintendents, board members or principals get involved after it’s too late. When things have already happened. Prevention is the best method to consider.”