As a Rule, CIF Is Real Hard-Liner

A high school relay team, among the fastest in California, is disqualified from a championship race because one of the runners is wearing different-colored underpants.

In another meet, a triple-jumper has the best performance of her life nullified when the opposing coach notices a thin, beaded cord around her ankle, a violation of a rule prohibiting jewelry. As a result, her team loses, ending a 22-year unbeaten streak.

A baseball team wins its first-round playoff game, 4-0, then must forfeit because its coach, who had been suspended for a game, is seen watching -- but not coaching -- from down the street.

These incidents occurred in Southern California during the last month, the baseball forfeit ending up in a Los Angeles County courtroom Tuesday. In each case, young athletes were penalized for technicalities that had no effect on the competition, raising questions about when enforcing the rules -- especially for kids -- becomes nitpicking.

The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs high school athletics in the state, takes a hard-line approach.

“It can even appear to be a minor or a small point, but ... our obligation is to uphold that as much as, maybe personally, we may not like to,” said Jim Staunton, commissioner of the CIF’s Southern Section. “Otherwise, there are no rules.”

Ethicists agree that it is important for kids to compete fairly, but they wonder if it is appropriate to disqualify athletes or teams for relatively minor infractions.

“The real key is fairness and what message are you trying to send,” said Michael Josephson, who heads a nationwide coalition devoted to ethical behavior among youths. “If we are unduly harsh and we don’t distinguish between moral misdemeanors and moral felonies, we send the wrong message.”

Like other athletic associations, the Southern Section produces a manual -- the so-called “Blue Book” -- covering a multitude of issues pertaining to the sporting events it governs. Some rules are adopted from the National Federation of State High School Associations, others are voted upon by member schools. CIF officials say they don’t create the rules, merely enforce them.

This role came under scrutiny last weekend at the Southern Section track championships, after Long Beach Poly’s boys’ 1,600-meter relay team finished 40 meters ahead of the nearest competition. That’s when meet officials declared a rules violation.

Three of the Poly runners wore black compression shorts under their green-and-white uniforms. A fourth, Travon Patterson, wore gray underpants.

“You couldn’t see them when he was standing,” said Joe Carlson, the school’s athletic director. “But when he ran ... once his shorts started flying up, you could see them.”

The rules state that relay members must wear identical uniforms and that any visible undergarments must be of the same color.

“That is a common theme across sports,” said Bruce Howard, a spokesman for the national federation. “Why? For uniformity’s sake.”

Not only did the Poly runners have their sectional victory taken away, they cannot compete in the state finals, which will hurt the team’s chances of winning an overall championship.

Carlson stopped short of criticizing the ruling, calling it “kind of a weird thing.”

CIF officials said there are practical reasons for following the letter of the law. “If we start interpreting every single rule, we would be so bogged down,” Southern Section spokesman Thom Simmons said. “It would bring this organization to a standstill.”

While the section came under criticism for the Poly ruling, at least one ethicist said there is plenty of blame to go around.

Bruce Weinstein, author of “Life Principles: Feeling Good by Doing Good,” said that coaches should know the rules thoroughly and be sure their teams comply. Athletes bear some responsibility too.

“This is a good training ground for adult life,” Weinstein said. “As we say, ignorance is no excuse for the law. Those rules may be unfair but when you sign up to participate in a sporting event you are agreeing to the rules. And the time to challenge them is beforehand, not after.”

Late last month, the Mission Viejo girls’ track and field team was competing against Dana Point Dana Hills in a league dual meet that came down to the final event.

With athletes from both teams gathered around, Chelsea Rinderspacher -- not among the top athletes on her squad -- made the longest triple-jump of her career to finish in third place. Her effort pulled the Diablos into a tie and kept alive a dual-meet unbeaten streak that dated to 1983.

But as the Mission Viejo team celebrated, the Dana Hills coach stepped forward, pointing to Rinderspacher’s pink anklet.

“She has this little string, not even as big as a shoe lace, a little thing called a friendship string or something,” Mission Viejo Coach Fred Almond said. “Come to find out, she’d worn it for three years and I’d never seen it. It was almost down in her shoe.”

Jewelry is prohibited in high school events, mainly for safety reasons. Anyone violating this rule is immediately disqualified. Rinderspacher, who did not return a phone call from a reporter, “never thought of it as jewelry ... she was crushed,” Almond said.

Rex Hall, the Dana Hills coach, said he believes the ban on jewelry is excessive but spoke up because “we teach all our kids to live by the rules, whether they like them or not.”

While not commenting specifically on the track meet, Weinstein said he worries about coaches using technicalities to win.

“In the short run, the guy will get what he wants,” the ethicist said. “In the long run, how does it make him look? The guy is going to lose because he could rightly be accused of poor sportsmanship. Even if it’s technically a rule, it’s ungentlemanly.”

Questions of fairness and sportsmanship were similarly fundamental to the controversy surrounding last week’s baseball game between Arcadia and Villa Park.

Arcadia Coach Sean McCorry had been ejected from the team’s final regular-season game, so was automatically suspended from the first round of the playoffs. The CIF rule states that a suspended coach cannot be “present at the team/bench area, inside a gymnasium, stadium or playing area. The intent of this rule is that the ejected person is not in attendance at the contest.”

After consulting with his athletic director, McCorry decided it would be permissible for him to set up a lawn chair and watch from the street beyond the right-field line. His team won in a shutout, then was disqualified.

In his protest, McCorry said he told officials: “Don’t worry about overturning a rule. Rules are made to be rewritten. I change my rules every year.”

It was not the sort of argument that persuades athletic associations.

“I think any group that has rules, the idea is to follow them,” said Howard of the national federation.

On the opposite side of the field, Lance Bissell, whose son Kevin plays for Villa Park, had mixed emotions about the way the team advanced in the playoffs. “We got the call Saturday morning saying, ‘There’s practice,’ ” the elder Bissell said. “What are we supposed to say? We don’t want to play?”

On Tuesday, a group of Arcadia parents mounted a last-ditch effort to reverse the decision, seeking a temporary restraining order. They arrived in court with a letter from the players describing how much the ruling had hurt them. After about 90 minutes of review and argument, the request was denied.

“The court sympathizes with the plaintiffs,” Judge Dzintra I. Janavs said. “However ... this court cannot conclude there was an abuse of discretion.”

Later in the day, Arcadia players and some of their parents arrived at Villa Park’s second-round game against Riverside Poly, some of the kids announcing loudly, “Arcadia’s in the house.”

A Villa Park administrator quickly interceded, warning them against any disruptive behavior.

Two Orange County sheriff’s deputies also were watching closely and the game went on without interruption, the Arcadia contingent loudly cheering the final out in a 4-1 victory by Poly.

Staunton, the commissioner, said he felt bad for the Arcadia team and families. But he wasn’t about to change his mind about strictly enforcing the rules.

“Someone has to do it,” he said. “If the speed limit is 35, it’s 35.”