Birmingham looks to defend City Open Division title with No. 1 seed

It was one of strangest Saturdays in the coaching career of Jim Rose. He’s the head football coach for defending City Section Open Division champion Birmingham and also the head coach for the girls’ flag football team. So there he was waiting to see what playoff seeding his teams would get while pulling double duty.

“It’s kind of cool,” he said.

The 11-man football team received the No. 1 seed for the Open Division, as expected. Birmingham hasn’t lost to a City Section opponent since 2017, winning 39 consecutive games. Birmingham will begin the eight-team tournament at home on Nov. 9 against No. 8 Narbonne. No. 5 Granada Hills is at No. 4 Carson, No. 6 Palisades is at No. 3 Gardena and No. 7 San Pedro is at No. 2 Garfield.

The Patriots’ flag football team drew the No. 7 seed in the inaugural Open Division championship tournament.

The 16-team flag football tournament begins on Wednesday. San Pedro is seeded No. 1 and Crenshaw No. 2. Birmingham gets to play No. 10 Bell at 3 p.m. Rose will schedule 11-man practice after that game.

Banning drew the No. 1 seed for Division I in 11-man football, with Arleta is No. 1 in Division II and Bell is No. 1 in Division III.