City Section Football Pairings a Bit Seedy

The City Section football coaches’ association needs to hold an emergency meeting to discuss its embarrassing performance in putting together the 16-team City 4-A playoff bracket.

There is no logic in matching conference opponents Taft-San Fernando, Sylmar-Canoga Park and Narbonne-San Pedro in first-round games.

Their argument is they wanted a true seeding, No. 1 facing No. 16, regardless of conference.

What they produced is a 16-team bracket that is looked upon as a joke by those coaches who didn’t take part in the seeding meeting. San Pedro played Narbonne last week and they play again on Friday. That’s ridiculous.

The time has come for the City Section to seed teams without the help of coaches who have teams in the playoffs. The Southern Section doesn’t permit coaches with playoff teams to participate in its seedings because of an obvious conflict of interest.

The credibility of the City Section seeding committee has taken a serious hit.

*

There’s more embarrassing news to report on the City Section. Chatsworth quarterback Ryan Martinez will miss a City 3-A playoff opener Friday against South Gate because he received two 15-yard penalties for celebrating a touchdown last week against Granada Hills, causing his ejection.

The official is the one who should be sitting out this week as punishment for his terrible error in judgment. Martinez deserved a 15-yard penalty for dancing in the end zone but not an ejection.

The videotape of the incident is proof of an official exceeding his authority. It should be used as a training vehicle for what an official is not supposed to do.