Victories Stolen From Oxnard Team

Oxnard High School has the No. 1 football team in the Channel League, maybe the whole division, and possibly the best football team in the state this year. Who will ever know now? The football team was handed the cruelest of blows for the second week in a row.

Last week, just 1 1/2 hours before they stepped onto the football field, the team found out it had to forfeit all of its previous games due to an error at the time of admission on one of the players. Oxnard had not lost any games for the season and went out and played with more heart and courage than this fan of high school football had ever seen before. The second blow was handed to the team this past Friday by those individuals we entrust with their care. Individuals we expect to teach our children that fair play, compassion and hard work will pay off.

What made the whole administrative error even worse was that this player, a fine young man who has believed himself to be eligible, really had very little impact on the results of any game. He was not a starter or a key player, he was not recruited by the coaches, it was an honest mistake.

After calling CIF as a concerned parent--I do not have any children on the team--I was told that our Channel League could still choose to send Oxnard High School on to the playoffs. I found that Joanne Black, the principal at Hueneme High School, was the league president this year. I sent her a copy of a letter I had sent to CIF, and she sent it to all the high school principals in our league.

On Friday morning I was in her office by 7 a.m., and she told me that I had until 1 p.m. to try to speak with all of the principals in the Channel League about taking another vote and allowing Oxnard High School to go to the playoffs.

I honestly believed in my heart that these people would understand the pain and hurt that this was causing a great group of kids. In some instances, the principals refused to see me or the other parents. The belief seemed to be that an administrator made the error and now “your kids” are going to pay. I was unaware of some of the other teams over the last several years that had to, also, pay highly, but got the feeling from some principals that it was “payback time” now.

Dos Pueblos High School was the only high school to agree to a new vote; Oxnard could not vote; and Hueneme, as the league host, could only vote in a tie.

Please, all league principals, sit down now, while there are no known problems with the teams, and try to set up a fair set of standards for the future. Other leagues have allowed a team to go after errors were made. Please, let the punishment fit the crime so we do not hurt our kids. Forget the past, move ahead and let’s teach our children a lesson in compassion and fair play.

CONNIE JO KAHN

Oxnard