Trabuco Hills is right.
The Southwest Division championship football game should not be played at the on-campus stadium of San Clemente.
San Clemente is right.
The Southwest Division championship football game should be played at the on-campus stadium of San Clemente.
San Clemente simply is taking advantage of a rule that allows CIF-Southern Section championship football games to be played at the on-campus stadiums of the host schools.
Trabuco Hills would rather not play at San Clemente’s Thalassa Stadium, where San Clemente beat Trabuco, 42-35, in a Sea View League game on Oct. 30. Trabuco folks prefer that the game be played at a neutral site.
The other CIF-SS football final involving two Orange County teams, Garden Grove vs. Rancho Alamitos on Saturday, is Garden Grove’s home game. But it is not being played at Garden Grove’s on-campus Jason Field. That game is at Orange Coast College, which Garden Grove secured last week knowing that Jason Field’s natural-turf field is in poor shape, its media facility is simply a few canopy-covered bleachers and parking is inadequate.
The CIF-SS office could have forced San Clemente to secure a different location if it felt that Thalassa Stadium, which has artificial turf, is the wrong place. CIF-SS officials toured San Clemente and found that it can do the job for today’s game.
Trabuco Hills filled about 2/3 to ¾ of the visitor side of Thalassa at the Oct. 30 game. If Trabuco had filled that side, then Trabuco could say “We’ve proven that we will have too many supporters for Thalassa” and CIF-SS officials probably would have told San Clemente to find another venue.
San Clemente is executing some gamesmanship here, too. The Tritons are exploiting any advantage they legally can. Just like Esperanza did in 2005.
In the 2005 football playoffs, Esperanza had a semifinal home game against Servite. Everyone knew that Servite’s following would be too much for the visitor’s side of Esperanza’s home field, Bradford Stadium on the Valencia campus. Esperanza went to work to get a different venue.
Esperanza secured Santa Ana Stadium, and not just because of the stadium’s seating capacity of 10,000. Esperanza was well aware that “The Bowl” had been a house of horrors for Servite for years in the Friars’ games there against Mater Dei.
Final score: Esperanza 31, Servite 21.
Trabuco Hills, and every other school that does not like having championship football games played at host schools, can ensure that neutral sites are required for future CIF-SS football finals. School administrators can craft a proposal that would have CIF-SS football finals played at alternate sites, and they should go as far as including football semifinals in that alternate-site plan.
All CIF-SS boys and girls basketball championship games are played at alternate sites because CIF-SS member schools passed that rule in a CIF-SS Council meeting where CIF-SS bylaws and rules are created, amended or deleted.
Nine of last year’s 13 11-man football championship games in the section were played at host schools’ on-campus stadiums. Six of this year’s football finals will be at host schools’ on-campus stadiums.
That will continue until the schools decide it’s time to change it.
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• San Clemente will have more seating and toilet facilities for today’s CIF-SS football final. Parking is to be improved, too. The advice here is to arrive early to avoid parking far away.
• All 13 CIF-SS 11-man football championship games will be shown live on Fox Sports West or Fox Sports Prime Ticket, or streamed live online at foxsports.com/west.
• Time Warner Cable will stream all five CIF State Volleyball Championship matches live Saturday at twccommunity.com. Admission to the matches at Santiago Canyon College in Orange is $12 for adults and $8 for senior citizens (65 and older), children 13 and younger and for students with valid student identification.
• The football season does not end with this week’s section finals. The CIF State Regional Bowl Games are next week. A committee made up of the 10 CIF section commissioners select the teams that play in next week’s Regionals. Regionals winners advance to the CIF State Championship Bowl Games the following week.
• The National Football Foundation Orange County Chapter is accepting nominations for its annual Scholar-Athlete Dinner at which they honor senior players who are first-team all-league while maintaining a grade-point average of 3.5 or better. The nominations deadline is Monday. Coaches have received the nomination forms or can acquire them by emailing Steve McKay at mckayz@msn.com.
• Memberships for the NFF’s Orange County Chapter is $40 for one year, $99 for three years and a lifetime membership is available for $1,000. Memberships ensure the chapter continues to provide scholarship awards to honorees at the Scholar-Athlete Dinner. Chapter members also get to vote in the College Football Hall of Fame elections. Contact McKay (mckayz@msn.com) for membership information or visit nationalfootballfoundation-occhapter.com.
• Villa Park basketball senior CJ Thomas committed to Dominican University. Former Villa Park All-County guard Luke Selway is at the San Rafael school, as are Jonny Bates (Capistrano Valley) and Josh Armstrong (Fountain Valley).
• The Minnesota Twins’ new manager, Paul Molitor, wants to ban some types of music played in the Twins clubhouse. High school athletic directors should do the same. Music played at stadiums, fields and in gyms before and during high school games have rock songs with curse words, rap songs with racial epithets and country songs about getting drunk.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
