Football: Brethren Christian unlikely to make Southern Section playoffs at 9-1

There’s going to be an embarrassing moment when Southern Section football playoff pairings are announced on Sunday. That would be Huntington Beach Brethren Christian failing to make the Division 10 playoffs with a 9-1 record.

It will not be a good scene considering this is the first season of new playoff groupings. But Brethren Christian was forced to compete as a freelance team this season when Sage Hill dropped 11-man football, leaving the Academy League with three teams and thus losing out on its two automatic playoff berths.

“It breaks the heart of my teammates to know that we have put in so much work during the season and offseason and for us to not have an opportunity to compete in playoffs this year,” quarterback Joey Gutierrez said in an email.

The Southern Section is following bylaws and really has little alternative in the matter. Sixteen teams can be selected, and there are 14 automatic berths already decided and given to first and second-place team. Further, there are nine teams in leagues up for the final two spots, so there’s no room for Brethren Christian no matter how good the team is.

The solution would have been last May, when Sage Hills dropped out, for Brethren Christian to find another league. And that likely will be only solution for next season unless changes are made in how playoff pairings are decided. Being freelance is a difficult burden to overcome for an at-large berth, even if the old playoff groupings existed.

Southern Section spokesman Thom Simmons voiced sympathy toward Gutierrez and his teammates but said the section’s hands are tied in following the rules.

Commissioner Rob Wigod, in an email to Brethren Christian Coach Pat McInally, said he understands the school’s frustration.

“The things that you are not in control of, the break-up of the Academy League and the performance of all of the Division 10 football teams resulting in them earning guaranteed entries from their leagues, is exactly that, things you, and even I, are not in control of,” Wigod wrote.

“I cannot deny a team entry into our playoffs, who earns one of the guaranteed entries from their league, in favor of an at-large and/or freelance team. There is simply no rule, no procedure, no process and no power given to me to do so.”

Let’s hope this situation is analyzed, evaluated and discussed by the football advisory committee because it could be repeated again next season, and that would be unacceptable.

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