Eisenhower Loses Home Advantage; Section Says Stadium Is Too Small

Eisenhower High’s semifinal playoff football game against La Puente Bishop Amat will not be played in Rialto on Friday night, even though Eisenhower won a coin flip that allowed it to pick the site.

Southern Section officials told Eisenhower administrators this week that the school’s stadium, which holds 7,500, was not big enough to handle the anticipated crowd of 10,000. They asked the school to move the game to a larger site.

The closest large stadium is at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, 40 miles west of Rialto. Mt. SAC’s 10,000-seat stadium is six miles from Bishop Amat.

“We won the flip and they get the home-field advantage,” said Edna Herring, Eisenhower’s principal. “Something is very wrong with this system. This incident goes to show you how many problems still exist in the CIF.”

Bishop Amat (12-0), ranked No. 1 by The Times, and No. 6 Eisenhower (10-1-1) each won Division I quarterfinal games last Friday. Because each school had been the site of one playoff game and played once on the road, a coin flip was held Saturday morning to determine the home team. Eisenhower won and elected to hold the game on its campus.

Mark Paredes, Bishop Amat’s coach and athletic director, surveyed Eisenhower’s field on Monday and determined that the visitor’s bleachers could not accommodate the 5,000 fans the school figured it would bring.

Stan Thomas, Southern Section commissioner, concurred with Paredes and told Herring to move the game. Thomas later changed his mind and said that the game could be played at Eisenhower if enough portable bleachers could be added to bring capacity to 10,000.