Officials to Try a Dose of Preventive Medicine : Litigation: After several legal hassles, the Southern Section adopts measures to defend itself against full-court pressure.

The day the Southern Section office always feared finally happened Tuesday, Nov. 15, 1989. It was a day that adults turned child’s play into legislative football.

In a storybook scene, cheerleaders and players jumped from their seats and raised their fists as Judge Thomas Thrasher granted the Huntington Beach High School football team a temporary restraining order that allowed the team back into the playoffs.

Four days earlier, the Oilers had forfeited eight victories, their share of the Sunset League title and were ruled out of the Division I playoffs by league principals for using an ineligible player for the entire 1989 season.

The ruling set off an emotional week during which students demonstrated, boosters litigated and judges, not quarterbacks, decided who would participate in postseason play.

The fallout was widespread. La Puente and Savanna followed suit, no pun intended, to the courtroom after both schools had forfeited games and playoff berths because they used ineligible players.

Before the week ended, attorneys representing the Southern Section were in three courtrooms. The Southern Section was involved in litigation five times in five days, with the very nature of its existence threatened by a judge’s gavel.

“We were depressed, disheartened and concerned for the welfare of the section,” said Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas, looking back on the week.

“Three days before our football playoffs were scheduled to begin, I was told by a superior court judge to take team A (Fountain Valley) out of the playoffs and put team B (Huntington Beach) back in. The ruling threatened the competitive structure of a format that involved 16 teams.

“It was a tremendous emotional week for all concerned. But we felt our rules were important and (we) were prepared to fight. The rules are developed and approved by the section’s principals. All we (Southern Section officials) do is enforce the rules that the schools approve.

“It was hard for me to accept the fact that a booster group couldn’t accept the rules of an organization that were made by dues-paying member schools.”

Thomas huddled with attorneys for nearly two weeks preparing for court cases. The task was expensive and time consuming.

“I did nothing but prepare for court cases when I should have been preparing for playoffs involving 144 football teams competing in nine divisions,” he said.

Only a last-minute decision by the 4th District Court of Appeal saved the Southern Section. The ruling, which upheld the original removal of Huntington Beach from the playoffs, came 24 hours before the playoffs began.

“We felt we had only a 5% chance of being heard by the District Court of Appeal before the playoffs were set to begin,” Thomas said. “We were looking at the possibility of postponing the playoffs for a week and restructuring the playoffs. There was a tremendous feeling of relief when it was finally over.”

Two months later, the hurt and bitterness remain among boosters, coaches, faculty, students and parents.

“It’s a no-win situation,” Thomas said. “Everybody loses in these types of situations. There were still hurt feelings when the executive committee sat down with the schools involved last month to discuss the problems.”

The meeting did produce some positive results. The Southern Section’s executive committee adopted some preventive measures it hopes will help alleviate its increasing number of court cases.

For openers, the section’s administrators will organize in-service workshops designed to educate the booster clubs that support a school’s athletic teams. At the workshops, section administrators will explain what the Southern Section is and how it functions.

Also, Southern Section administrators will meet each fall with booster club officers in four regions to discuss how the rules were adopted and enforced. The plan calls for school principals to meet with booster club officers on a regular basis.

“Looking back, I think the principals at Huntington Beach and Savanna were lacking,” Thomas said. “They could have been better informed of what was going on.”

Gary Ernst, principal at Huntington Beach, admitted he was never invited to a booster club meeting and didn’t get involved with the school’s support group, despite missing only one home game in the past three years.

“Our booster club turned out to be a separate arm of the school,” Ernst said. “We need to educate the parents and decide what is the purpose of a booster club. Where are the limits? Who’s in control?

“I know I have penciled in red letters to meet with our boosters before the season starts. I think the orientation is a great step in the right direction, especially with the turnover of parents in the club each year.”

William Wong, principal at Savanna, described his relationship with the school’s booster club as “limited interaction” last fall. Wong said he attends the football team’s home and away games and meets with the booster group at the beginning of each school year to review fund-raising activities.

Savanna’s boosters followed the lead of Huntington Beach’s boosters in seeking an order reinstating the school’s football team in the Division VI playoffs after Orange League principals voted the school out of postseason play for using an ineligible player.

“My main role was to provide supervision for the students in the courtroom,” Wong said. “I tried to be sympathetic and understanding. It was difficult helping them deal with their feelings.”

Wong said his role in the courtroom was that as a “bystander who was ready to answer any questions” regarding the school, the Orange League constitution or Southern Section bylaws. He said his role with the boosters will change next school year.

“I plan to be more involved,” he said. “We’ll have an orientation meeting with the boosters, then meet with other parents, coaches and students to explain the role of the CIF and its function.”

Ernst, the Sunset League’s representative to the Southern Section’s general council, is campaigning for a committee that would allow schools to appeal decisions regarding playoff participation and forfeitures.

“I was caught right in the middle,” Ernst said. “Parents were coming to me saying, ‘Why can’t you do anything about this?’ I told them, ‘As a principal, I’m a part of the CIF. I can’t sue myself.’ I had no place to turn, none whatsoever.

“Again, it gets back to the need to educate the parents. There’s a turnover of parents in these booster groups each year, just as there is a turnover of players on the team.”

Thomas will introduce his plans for preventive litigation at the general council’s winter meeting, Thursday in Buena Park. Principals representing the section’s 62 leagues will listen to Thomas review the turbulent month of November. Thomas said he will ask for direction.

“The principals need to tell us what they want us to do,” Thomas said. “Are they satisfied with the job we’re doing? Do schools want to remain a member of the Southern Section and abide by its rules and regulations, or do they want to play intramurals?”

CHRONOLOGY: SOUTHERN SECTION IN THE COURTS

Nov. 12, 1989--Sunset League principals rule that Huntington Beach’s football team must forfeit eight victories and its share of the league title, and relinquish its berth in the Division I playoffs for using an ineligible player the entire 1989 season.

Nov. 14, 1989--A Superior Court judge rules that the Huntington Beach football team can compete in the playoffs. Superior Court Judge Thomas Thrasher issues a restraining order, which in effect states that the Southern Section may not enforce its decisions to penalize the school for using an ineligible player.

“The CIF’s position is legitimate, but the circumstances in this case cry out of equitable relief,” Thrasher said. “The law should not be unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious.”

Nov. 14, 1989--Orange League principals rule that Savanna’s football team must forfeit six victories and a tie and its share of the league title, and relinquish its berth in the Southern Section Division VI playoffs for using an ineligible player.

“There’s been a lot of tears. There’s been a loss, an emptiness,” said Fred DiPalma, Savanna football coach, after announcing the forfeitures.

Nov. 15, 1989--Angry school boosters at Huntington Beach and Savanna and administrators representing the Southern Section prepare to square off in Orange County courts. Southern Section administrators decide to appeal the ruling that allows Huntington Beach to participate in the playoffs.

Attorneys representing Savanna’s booster club are scheduled to appear in Orange County Superior Court to seek an order reinstating its football team in the playoffs.

Nov. 16, 1989--Twenty-four hours before the Southern Section football playoffs begin, Huntington Beach is ruled out of the playoffs by appellate judges, who sternly lecture the school’s booster club attorneys on the importance of playing by the rules.

A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeals sides with Sunset League officials who had disqualified Huntington Beach from the playoffs for using an ineligible player.

“Maybe what’s suffering is respect for the rules,” said Associate Justice Edward Wallin. “The rules are extremely clear as to what the consequences will be if an ineligible player is fielded.”

Nov. 17, 1989--Two and a half hours before the Southern Section playoffs begin, a federal judge refuses to intervene and denies a lawsuit sought by the parent of a Huntington Beach player that contends that the Southern Section violated his son’s constitutional rights by depriving him of participating in the playoffs.

U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts hears the case after hours, rejects the bid and notes the rules are fair. Whether they are fairly applied, Letts says, are not constitutional issues.

Nov. 17, 1989--Savanna loses its bid to be reinstated in the Southern Section playoffs when an Orange County Superior Court commissioner rules that the football team had been properly removed from postseason play by Orange League principals.

Commissioner Julain Cimbaluk ruled that there were no grounds to reinstate Savanna. “I see no abuse of discretion or violation of the rules,” Cimbaluk said.