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GOOD CALL: La Habra and Ronnie Hillman are part of the Freeway League, which chose not to play two games in one week.
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Fryer: CIF not to blame for putting players at risk
Fryer: CIF not to blame for putting players at risk
December 28, 2007 6:29 PM
OCVarsity.com
:
It could have moved playoffs back, but other decisions fall on member schools.
It could have moved playoffs back, but other decisions fall on member schools.
The cancellations and postponements of high school football games provided good lessons on how CIF works.
The CIF works for its member schools. The member schools are the bosses of the CIF. It’s not the other way around.
The CIF - short for California Interscholastic Federation - is not a monolithic organization that sets policy, rules and regulations. Policy, rules and regulations are made by the CIF’s member schools. The CIF simply enforces those rules that its member schools create.
That is why the CIF State office and one of its 10 sections, our local CIF-Southern Section, did not tell schools what to do in dealing with this week’s fires and the resulting poor air quality. The section office, and the state office, left that up to schools and school districts.
And that’s how it works in a number of ways. Leagues and playoff divisions are formed by member schools. JSerra is in the Trinity League because Orange County schools placed JSerra there, and no matter what CIF officers though about that, they were powerless to act.
Rules regarding undue influence, i.e. illegal recruiting, were made by member schools. The number of games in a season was made by member schools. There was no 30-second shot clock in boys basketball until member schools voted to bring that into the game.
So the CIF-Southern Section’s role in cancellations, postponements and rescheduling of high school contests, no matter the sport, was limited to reminding member schools of the rules like the one by which a football team cannot play more than two games over an eight-day period. The section office was not empowered to instruct schools to play their games or cancel them.
One thing that could have been done on the CIF State level was to push the date of the CIF State Championships, the three-game event that is Dec. 15 at the Home Depot Center in Carson. That would have allowed the Southern Section to push the start of its playoffs back one week so that all teams would be able to play a 10-game schedule.
The CIF State office would not do so.
“For a couple of reasons,” CIF State spokesperson Emmy Zack said. “First, and the most important, is the availability of facilities and all the arrangements that already are in place for Dec. 15. Second, if we push it back a week to Dec. 22, that puts us right on top of the holidays and kids’ final exams, and then it’s another week away from winter sports for kids who play winter sports.”
Also, the CIF State has to serve 10 sections, of which only a couple were affected by the fires, and their scheduling.
Four leagues - the Empire, Freeway, Pacific Coast and Trinity - decided to cancel their Week 8 football games and just go with a nine-game football season. Others decided to play two games next week, with many teams playing Monday and Friday.
Dr. Ben Rubin, of the Orthopaedic Specialty Institute in Orange, is the team physician for Servite, has served as the team physician for USA Diving and has been a U.S Olympic Team doctor in three Olympics Games, and is clinical professor of orthopaedics at UC Irvine. He was concerned about the effect that two football games in a short period could have on a high-school athlete.
“My question,” Rubin said, “is how does a kid get ready for the next game? If you play on Monday and rest on Tuesday, are you ready for contact on Wednesday and Thursday? It seems a little crazy to me.”
Dick Whitney coached Franklin High of Los Angeles in two football games over a five-day period, in 1970. Franklin’s final regular-season game of a Friday night was postponed because of a severe thunderstorm, and rescheduled for the following Monday. Franklin won on Monday, but lost, to Garfield, on Friday of that week in the first round of the playoffs.
Whitney said the two games took a toll.
“We were wiped out,” he said. “That was a lot to go through. If you’re banged up from the first game, you just have less time to get healed for the next game.”
That was on the mind of Dr. Mike Sheppard, another Orhopaedic Specialty Institute physician, when he heard that football teams are going to play twice next week.
“Maybe you could get away with that, with 10-year-olds playing,” said Sheppard, the team physician for the football teams at Chapman University, Santa Ana College and Villa Park. “But 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds move a lot faster and hit a lot harder. They need more time to rest and recuperate.
“Injuries occur when muscles and athletes get fatigued,” said Sheppard, who played football at Foothill and UC Davis. “Are they going to put a bunch of people who are fatigued from Monday night back out on the field on Friday night?”
Yes, they are. And don’t blame that on CIF.
The CIF works for its member schools. The member schools are the bosses of the CIF. It’s not the other way around.
The CIF - short for California Interscholastic Federation - is not a monolithic organization that sets policy, rules and regulations. Policy, rules and regulations are made by the CIF’s member schools. The CIF simply enforces those rules that its member schools create.
That is why the CIF State office and one of its 10 sections, our local CIF-Southern Section, did not tell schools what to do in dealing with this week’s fires and the resulting poor air quality. The section office, and the state office, left that up to schools and school districts.
And that’s how it works in a number of ways. Leagues and playoff divisions are formed by member schools. JSerra is in the Trinity League because Orange County schools placed JSerra there, and no matter what CIF officers though about that, they were powerless to act.
Rules regarding undue influence, i.e. illegal recruiting, were made by member schools. The number of games in a season was made by member schools. There was no 30-second shot clock in boys basketball until member schools voted to bring that into the game.
So the CIF-Southern Section’s role in cancellations, postponements and rescheduling of high school contests, no matter the sport, was limited to reminding member schools of the rules like the one by which a football team cannot play more than two games over an eight-day period. The section office was not empowered to instruct schools to play their games or cancel them.
One thing that could have been done on the CIF State level was to push the date of the CIF State Championships, the three-game event that is Dec. 15 at the Home Depot Center in Carson. That would have allowed the Southern Section to push the start of its playoffs back one week so that all teams would be able to play a 10-game schedule.
The CIF State office would not do so.
“For a couple of reasons,” CIF State spokesperson Emmy Zack said. “First, and the most important, is the availability of facilities and all the arrangements that already are in place for Dec. 15. Second, if we push it back a week to Dec. 22, that puts us right on top of the holidays and kids’ final exams, and then it’s another week away from winter sports for kids who play winter sports.”
Also, the CIF State has to serve 10 sections, of which only a couple were affected by the fires, and their scheduling.
Four leagues - the Empire, Freeway, Pacific Coast and Trinity - decided to cancel their Week 8 football games and just go with a nine-game football season. Others decided to play two games next week, with many teams playing Monday and Friday.
Dr. Ben Rubin, of the Orthopaedic Specialty Institute in Orange, is the team physician for Servite, has served as the team physician for USA Diving and has been a U.S Olympic Team doctor in three Olympics Games, and is clinical professor of orthopaedics at UC Irvine. He was concerned about the effect that two football games in a short period could have on a high-school athlete.
“My question,” Rubin said, “is how does a kid get ready for the next game? If you play on Monday and rest on Tuesday, are you ready for contact on Wednesday and Thursday? It seems a little crazy to me.”
Dick Whitney coached Franklin High of Los Angeles in two football games over a five-day period, in 1970. Franklin’s final regular-season game of a Friday night was postponed because of a severe thunderstorm, and rescheduled for the following Monday. Franklin won on Monday, but lost, to Garfield, on Friday of that week in the first round of the playoffs.
Whitney said the two games took a toll.
“We were wiped out,” he said. “That was a lot to go through. If you’re banged up from the first game, you just have less time to get healed for the next game.”
That was on the mind of Dr. Mike Sheppard, another Orhopaedic Specialty Institute physician, when he heard that football teams are going to play twice next week.
“Maybe you could get away with that, with 10-year-olds playing,” said Sheppard, the team physician for the football teams at Chapman University, Santa Ana College and Villa Park. “But 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds move a lot faster and hit a lot harder. They need more time to rest and recuperate.
“Injuries occur when muscles and athletes get fatigued,” said Sheppard, who played football at Foothill and UC Davis. “Are they going to put a bunch of people who are fatigued from Monday night back out on the field on Friday night?”
Yes, they are. And don’t blame that on CIF.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
