Mater Dei-Poly Outcome Could Force Rule Change

Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson realizes the ramifications--one team leaving the field in tears, the other in a blaze of glory.

But a few days after his Monarchs tied Long Beach Poly, 21-21, in the Division I championship game, Rollinson said he might have preferred to take his chances rather than adhere to the Southern Section’s no-overtime rule in title games.

“If you’re asking me,” Rollinson said Monday, “I’d probably say, ‘Let’s break the tie.’ But that was not the way it was in 1999.”

That could be the way it is in 2000, though, if members of the Southern Section council, which includes one representative from every high school league, bring up changing the rule and later vote to do so. Their next meeting is Jan. 20.

“If the schools are uncomfortable, this is an issue that could go back before our governing board and we could vote on it again,” said Southern Section Assistant Commissioner Bill Clark. “It’s not etched in stone.”

Poly Coach Jerry Jaso said he already has spoken to the school’s activities director, Terry Speir, about bringing up the issue at the next council meeting.

“You don’t think about these things ending in a tie,” Jaso said, “but now that it’s happened, we ought to take a look at it and see if we can get a champion out of the deal.”

A play-until-there’s-a-winner rule was in effect, Clark said, through the 1981 season.

In that year’s Southern Conference title game, Foothill and El Modena were tied at the conclusion of regulation. Both coaches were ready to walk off the field and accept the tie, Clark said. But the rules stipulated that the teams keep playing, and Foothill eventually won in overtime, 35-28.

At a subsequent meeting of the Southern Section council, the rule was changed.

The next season, Rosemead and Pomona Garey tied, 19-19, in the Southeastern Conference title game. The most recent major-division tie before Saturday’s game came in 1985, when Poly and Edison played to a 14-14 draw.

Rollinson said this year’s championship has felt “different” than his other four titles of the 1990s.

“I think we accomplished a lot, but it is a different feeling,” Rollinson said. “It’s not the same feeling as getting beat a couple of years ago and it’s not the same as outright winning. I feel good for the boys. It’s just a little different.”