Depleted Numbers Force Mar Vista to Forfeit Game

Mar Vista High, which lost a number of football players this week because of grades and is now down to fewer than 10 players, has forfeited its game Friday against Chula Vista. And unless something drastic is done, Mar Vista likely will not play its last game of the season the next week against Hilltop.

Mar Vista Coach Sam Coe said losing those players left his team without enough players to safely compete against anyone, let alone Chula Vista, which is leading the Metro Conference with a 5-0 record (6-2 overall).

Mar Vista (1-7, 1-4 in league) had only 24 players for its game Friday against Castle Park, a 37-6 loss. When grades came out this week, Mar Vista was down to fewer than 10 players. Coe refused to discuss individual circumstances or how many players were ruled ineligible.

“We had some grade problems. We had a lot of grade problems,” he said.

“Sam said last week, ‘We might lose five, seven at the most. But we should be OK,’ ” Chula Vista Coach George Ohnesorgen said. “When they lost 18, that just blew everything out of the water.”

Coe said a number of options were discussed with Mar Vista Principal Jaime Mercado and ASB Director Stan Canaris, including bringing up some junior varsity players, but the administration decided against that.

“We didn’t feel it was in our best interest to pull up JV kids and throw them to the wolves,” Coe said.

The schools’ junior varsity teams will play today as scheduled.

Chula Vista, which is having its homecoming Friday, had to scramble to get a replacement opponent. It managed to get the Institute of Mexico, a private school in Tijuana. Game time is 7:30 p.m. at Chula Vista.

Understandably, Ohnesorgen wasn’t pleased with the ordeal.

“I don’t blame Sam. It’s not his fault,” Ohnesorgen said. “When a school the size of Mar Vista (approximately 1,700 students) can’t run a football program--when there are other schools much smaller than them competing--that’s a bad situation. I guess that shows what kind of support their administration shows toward athletics. It’s really an embarrassment to our district and our league.”

Section Commissioner Kendall Webb said he was informed of the incident by Chula Vista. There is no ruling to be made by his office, though Chula Vista did question whether it was all right to schedule another game. Under CIF rules, forfeitures do not count toward the maximum number of contests permitted during the season. In football, teams are allowed to play 10 regular-season games.