Five Bell Football Players Chastised for Kicking Foes

Five Bell High School football players have been reprimanded for a kicking incident during the Eagles’ City Section 3-A Division quarterfinal game against Chatsworth in November.

Three juniors involved in the Nov. 25 incident were declared ineligible to play in Bell’s first game of the 1993 season by school officials.

The Bell football program also is being evaluated by City officials and could be placed on probation. The City Rules Committee had a special meeting last week to review the incident. Bell High Principal Mel Mares and Chatsworth Principal Donna Smith were interviewed by the committee. Bell Athletic Director Sue Kamiyama, who heads the committee, disqualified herself because of a conflict of interest.

“Five Bell players were reprimanded and no further action (regarding possible probation) will be taken until February,” City Commissioner Hal Harkness said.

The committee will meet again Feb. 25 to make a final decision.

Chatsworth was leading top-seeded Bell, 31-6, with 6:06 remaining in the fourth quarter when the game was stopped because of continued violence between plays. The most egregious incident occurred when fallen Chatsworth linebacker Robert Webb was kicked in the groin by a Bell running back.

The Eagle running back, one of the three juniors, was suspended from school for two days and will not be allowed to compete in other varsity sports for the rest of the current school year.

The five Bell players involved--two seniors in addition to the three juniors--were removed from consideration for Southeastern Conference and City Section 3-A Division honors by Ray Galarze, the school’s coach.

“We feel that we had an opportunity to present our case,” Mares said. “I feel our actions are consistent with the infractions. We felt we acted in good faith and followed the rules.