Savanna Is Forced to Forfeit Co-Title, Berth in Playoffs : High Schools: Orange League principals vote to strip Rebels of six victories and a tie for using an ineligible player.

The Savanna High School football team has forfeited its Orange League co-championship, a berth in the Southern Section Division VI playoffs, six victories and a tie for using an ineligible player, league principals ruled Tuesday.

Savanna, which had won its first league championship since the school opened in 1961, will be replaced by Brea-Olinda High School in the playoffs. Valencia, which tied with Savanna, wins the league title outright.

The principals voted to insert Brea as the league’s No. 1 representative to the playoffs, taking Savanna’s place. Valencia remains No. 2 and Western No. 3 to keep any changes in the pairings to a minimum.

“I told our principal under no circumstances did I want to change the pairings,” said Mike Marrujo, Valencia coach. “We’re two days away from a game. It would hurt us more than help us.”

Fred DiPalma, Savanna coach, said the player, Ray Leuta, was a fifth-year senior and not eligible to play varsity sports. Leuta had apparently been attending high school since 1984.

The Times learned that Leuta began at Narbonne High in Harbor City in 1984, then transferred to La Quinta in the fall of 1985. He left La Quinta for Lake, a continuation high school in Garden Grove, Dec. 14, 1988. On Feb. 14, 1989, he left Lake for Gilbert, an Anaheim continuation school.

Andrew McTaggart, La Quinta principal, called William Wong, Savanna principal, Tuesday morning and informed him of the situation.

“As (McTaggart) remembered it, the player in question should have graduated last year, which would have been at the end of his four-year eligibility period,” Wong said. “Our record indicates that he has been in school three years and part of a semester.

“What happened was, when you look at a transcript, the semesters are broken into blocks. You count the semesters and then you would know how long a kid had been in school.

“But there was a period of time when he did not attend school and it was not picked up. It still looked like 3 1/2 years.”

DiPalma called it an administrative error. “As far as we knew, he was eligible,” DiPalma said.

Wong called the Southern Section and informed it of the problem, then called a meeting of the league principals, who voted Savanna out of playoffs.

“It was very tough,” Wong said, “especially because the coaches and players worked so hard this season.”

The Rebels, who posted 6-3-1 overall and 4-0-1 league records, were having their best season in the 1980s. Last year, Savanna was 1-9 and had been outscored 334-55. In the past five years, Savanna had won only six games.

But under DiPalma, in his first season as Savanna coach, the Rebels turned things around. And that made Tuesday’s news that much harder to take. DiPalma said he informed the players of the forfeit at lunch.

“Here it’s our first league championship and it’s taken away from us,” DiPalma said. “It’s more sad than ironic to tell you the truth. There’s been a lot of tears. There’s a loss, an emptiness.”

Later in the afternoon, the players met again with DiPalma and his staff. DiPalma offered a few words of consolation, and the players lined up to shake hands with each other.

Many embraced and broke into tears. Others sat or stood alone and stared at the ground. The players would not comment on the forfeit, but consoled each other with quiet words.

“They can’t take those six wins away,” one said to a teammate.

Orange League coaches also were stunned by the news.

“Fred did a great job at Savanna, and then to have something like this happen, it’s a shame,” said Jim Howell, Western coach.

Savanna beat Western, 14-13, Friday night to earn a share of the league championship with Valencia.

“I feel bad for Fred,” Marrujo said. “I’m sure he’s going to have a very tough time dealing with the kids. This has to be the biggest nightmare facing a coach. Nowadays, you have to be very careful screening every transfer. It’s important enough to check every detail.”

DiPalma had been an assistant under Marrujo at Valencia for two seasons before taking the Savanna job earlier this year.

“We want the younger kids to understand the program has arrived,” DiPalma said. “We want them to be hungry for next year.”

* BACK IN THE PLAYOFFS

A restraining order has forced Sunset League officials to reinstate Huntington Beach in the Division I playoffs. A1