Games Belong on the Field, Not in a Courtroom

A co-worker of mine would rather I not write this particular column. He’s sick of hearing about parents who threaten lawsuits to get their way, about high school administrators who sacrifice integrity for their own popularity, about the loss of perspective in prep sports.

I’m sick of it, too.

A week ago Monday, the Woodbridge boys’ soccer team was playing Westminster in a quarterfinal game of the Irvine tournament. Woodbridge was leading, 2-1, when one of its players was called for a foul. The player, team captain Jon Szczuka, argued the call. In doing so he received a red card, which means he’s ejected.

Woodbridge Coach Clyde Best came onto the field to argue. He was given a yellow card, a warning.

Several Woodbridge fans, mostly parents, also came on to the field to argue the ejection. The referee warned them to get off the field. All except one man, who did not have a son on the team, complied. He refused to back down and basically told the referee where to go.

The referee had enough. He called the game and left.

Incidents such as these are hardly uncommon in sports these days, especially soccer. But most troubling is what followed.

After Monday’s incident, Woodbridge Athletic Director Dave Cowen told tournament director Rick Surrell that Woodbridge would forfeit the game, allowing Westminster to advance to Wednesday’s championship semifinal. Of that decision, Cowen told the Irvine World News: “It might not be a very popular decision, but there has got to be self-control on the part of the players . . . I don’t want any official or a player to be verbally abused. And to have parents do the same is not the model of behavior I want to see.”

But Tuesday, Cowen suddenly changed his mind or had it changed for him. Parents of Woodbridge players had complained to the school’s principal, Greg Cops. Cops met with Cowen, and Cowen called tournament director Surrell.

“Dave called and said that if we didn’t put Woodbridge back into the winners’ bracket, the parents might seek a court injunction to do so,” Surrell said.

So here we go again.

First, we have another set of parents whose perspective has flown the coop. What’s next? Suing the high school band because you didn’t like its rendition of “On Top of Old Smokey”?

This was one game in a high school soccer tournament, one that had no bearing on league or Southern Section standings. The point of such tournaments is to give teams playing experience, which is why they include consolation rounds.

Were the parents going to sue because their boys might have lost out on the chance to win a trophy? Did they think the winners would be on the cover of Sports Illustrated? An automatic berth in the World Cup?

Or does it have something to do with the fact that litigation is such a status symbol these days? Hmm, I did hear somewhere that lawsuits have replaced pantsuits as the fashion statement of the ‘90s.

Cops argues that the referee used the word “suspended,” when he called the game. According to Southern Section rules, the team that is leading when a game is suspended is declared the winner. And so, Cops says, he is only following the rules.

Rules? Try a loophole big enough to fly the Space Shuttle through.

“That referee was probably under so much pressure when he called the match, he might not have considered the difference between saying ‘suspended’ or ‘forfeited,’ ” Westminster Athletic Director Stan Clark said. “(Woodbridge officials and parents) are hanging their whole hat on the word ‘suspended.’ I don’t know another sport where an official could end a game because of bad sportsmanship and then have the whole decision reversed based on one word.”

And the referee, Dennis McLaughlin, says he never used the word “suspended” anyway. “I said it was ‘terminated,’ ” said McLaughlin, who has officiated soccer for 12 years. “The match was out of control . . . I personally have never seen anything like it.”

But Cops feel it’s unfair to penalize a entire team for the actions of one player, a coach and a fan.

Tell that to the Westminster players.

You’d think a principal would have higher principles. You’d think Cops could have stood up for something meaningful. (Integrity, perhaps?) But Cops copped out.

He could have done what was right--backed Cowen’s decision to forfeit the game, showing everyone that Woodbridge means business when it comes to sportsmanship, fairness and being a role model for the community.

Instead, he showed Woodbridge means business--for lawyers.