Panel Softens Probation Terms for Banning Team

A high school athletic appeals board on Tuesday modified the sanctions against Banning High School’s football team but upheld an earlier ruling that the Wilmington school must play Dorsey High School next year at Dorsey’s home field in southwest Los Angeles.

Banning forfeited a Nov. 1 game rather than play on Dorsey’s home field because supporters argued that recent shootings around the stadium, combined with intense rivalry between the schools, made the site dangerous.

A committee overseeing sports competition in Los Angeles city schools put Banning on immediate probation through 1992 and said the school must play next year at Dorsey or be eliminated from the playoffs. But the board said that probation would apply only to the 1992 season, not the remainder of the 1991 season.