Huntington Beach Out of Playoffs : Football: School is forced to forfeit eight victories and its share of Sunset League title for using an ineligible player.

Huntington Beach High School’s football team forfeited eight victories and its share of the Sunset League title and was also ruled out of the Division I playoffs by league principals on Saturday for using an ineligible player for the entire 1989 season.

Huntington Beach (8-2 overall) had been a tri-champion of the six-team league, with Edison and Ocean View at 4-1. The league title was only the third in 22 years for Huntington Beach.

By unanimous vote, the principals declared Edison (8-2, 5-0) and Ocean View (7-3, 4-1) co-champions of the league despite the difference in their records. They also chose Fountain Valley (5-5, 3-2) as the league’s third representative in the playoffs.

“The principals felt it wasn’t fair to strip Ocean View of a championship because it had done nothing wrong, so technically, the first- and second-place teams are league champions,” said Bill Boswell, athletic director of the Huntington Beach Union High School District.

Ocean View’s league title is its first since the school opened in 1976. Its only loss in the league was against Edison.

Huntington Beach administrators determined on Friday evening that starting right tackle David Roman had failed to establish residency within the school’s attendance area with his parents or a legal guardian; failure to do so is a violation of CIF bylaws.

Roman, who had transferred from Maryland, has resided in Huntington Beach with his older brother, Tony, since enrolling at Huntington Beach High on Aug. 16. Roman’s mother remained in Maryland trying to sell her home.

“His mother filed a declaration of residency in August that he (Roman) would live with his brother while she returned to Maryland to sell her home,” Huntington Beach principal Gary Ernst said. “We forgot about the matter, figuring she would sell the home. It was over and done with as far as we were concerned.”

The question of Roman’s eligibility did not surface until last week, when he petitioned Southern Section officials for a fifth year of eligibility. He is listed in the school’s football program as a junior.

“As early as Friday morning, I was convinced the boy was living with his mother,” Ernst said. “It wasn’t until I received a call from (Southern Section Administrator) Bill Clark at 4:30 Friday that I became aware there might be a problem.”

Representatives from the league’s six schools in the Huntington Beach Union High School District met Saturday morning to determine Roman’s eligibility status and the league’s order of participants for the Division I playoffs.

All agreed Roman was ineligible and that Huntington Beach would forfeit eight victories and its league title. But the principals also voted to declare Edison and Ocean View co-champions and declared Huntington Beach as the third representative in the playoffs despite an 0-10 record.

“I’m not going to comment on the logic of the decision,” Boswell said after the meeting.

Officials at Fountain Valley immediately filed an appeal with the Southern Section, and the league’s representatives reconvened at 2 p.m. in Cerritos with Commissioner Stan Thomas.

“The principals voted to reverse their decision based on their league’s constitution for determining playoff participants,” Thomas said. “The original decision was made improperly. They overlooked their own constitution.”

Huntington Beach Coach George Pascoe was visibly shaken throughout the proceedings. “As far as I’m concerned, everything was done properly (during the season),” Pascoe said. “It’s too bad we’ve had a great season taken away because of a misunderstanding.”

Ocean View Coach Howard Isom said he didn’t sleep well Friday night because he was wondering how to tell his players they had lost the championship because of another school’s mistake.

“The numbers (won-loss records) may not add up to co-champions, but it’s fair,” he said. “I wasn’t looking forward to telling my players they had lost our only league title in the school’s history. That could have been ugly.”

Fountain Valley Coach Mike Milner spent most of Saturday trying to locate his assistant coaches to tell them the Barons were in the playoffs.

“It’s going to create some long hours, but the players are really fired up to be back in the playoffs,” said Milner, who led Fountain Valley to the Division I title last year.

SUNSET REVISED BEFORE THE FORFEITS

League Overall School W L T W L T Huntington Beach 4 1 0 8 2 0 Ocean View 4 1 0 7 3 0 Edison 4 1 0 7 3 0 Fountain Valley 2 3 0 4 6 0 Westminster 1 4 0 1 9 0 Marina 0 5 0 2 8 0

AFTER THE FORFEITS

League Overall School W L T W L T Edison 5 0 0 8 2 0 Ocean View 4 1 0 7 3 0 Fountain Valley 3 2 0 5 5 0 Westminster 2 3 0 2 8 0 Marina 1 4 0 3 7 0 Huntington Beach 0 5 0 0 10 0