Due to one of their players illegally participating in a non-CIF soccer league, the defending national champion Wilson Bruins girls’ soccer team is forfeiting four league contests.

The violation occurred on January 23^rd, and they’re forfeiting their four league wins after that date that the player subsequently participated in.  Their record now drops to 7-5, and they finish in fourth place in the Moore League, instead of as co-champions with Poly.  Their CIF seed also now drops from second to fourth.

Moore League secretary Jim Lineberger says, “You can’t participate in club games during the season, although you certainly can outside.  [After being made aware of the situation] the Wilson coach called the girl in and sat her down and said, ‘We’re going to CIF, we need to know what happened.’  She played one time, on January 23^rd, so the coach went back through the record and forfeited their four wins after the 23^rd.”

The four forfeited wins are over Jordan, Cabrillo, Lakewood, and Compton, who now all gain a victory.  Lakewood and Cabrillo now move up from being a three and a four-seed in the playoffs, respectively, to a two and a three-seed.  “This was a miscommunication,” said Wilson head coach Jason Kirkwood.  “There was confusion on her part, apparently because of the free association rule.  After it was brought to my attention we did the right thing and self-reported.”  We are withholding the players’ name at Kirkwood’s request, though it is worth noting that the player is not a starter.

According to Jorge Polanco, the head coach of the Cabrillo girls’ team, his school alerted Kirkwood to the player’s activity.  A volunteer parent from the Jaguars was at a local park, and taped the game the player participated in.  According to Polanco, the parent was taping the game to make sure that a Cabrillo player was not participating.  When he realized there was another Moore League player on the tape, he brought it to Polanco.  “I really didn’t want to bring anyone down,” he said, “but rules are rules.  I brought it to our [girls’] athletic director [Denise Sarno], who brought it to [Kirkwood].”  After seeing the tape, Kirkwood self-reported and forfeited the games.  The general feeling among coaches we talked to was that, had Polanco given the tape to CIF instead of Kirkwood, the penalties could have been more severe for the Bruins.  CIF’s office was closed for the day, so we haven’t confirmed that, and there is also no word yet as to whether or not CIF will take further action in penalizing Wilson.

The league the player participated in is what’s referred to as a Sunday league, or a Hispanic league.  According to several coaches, it requires effort to keep some of their players from participating in these leagues.  Polanco told us that while the official cutoff for not participating in non-CIF league games was anytime after November 14^th, he set the date for his team at November 1^st.  Then, when he discovered two of his players participating after his cutoff (but before the CIF date), he suspended the players for the first two games.  “This is what they say is the right way,” he said, “So we’re doing it the right way.”

One Moore League coach said that when they worked at a previous school, it was very hard to keep players out of the Hispanic leagues, and parents videotaping the games was common.  A coach of a Moore League boys’ team said that in his opinion, “Girls and guys are doing it all the time, at every level.”

Lakewood girls’ coach Scott Manson disagrees with specifically prohibiting players from participating in the Hispanic leagues.  “Here’s the deal: it’s an antiquated law, almost a racist law.  It’s set up for the club player—a club player tends to be the player who can spend money.  The culture of the Hispanic community is that they play in these Sunday leagues, and it’s a family gathering.  It’s a hard choice to make if they have to say, ‘I’ll stop playing on my family team with my aunt and dad to go play for three months in high school.’  Everyone runs into problems with it.  It’s probably something that needs to be revisited in a lot of coaches’ minds because it’s so hard to keep Hispanic players away from them.”

The leagues (the Cesar Chavez and Miguel Hidalgo leagues are the most popular LB leagues) are, from our understanding, often just a cut above pickup games, but are counted as illegal games for CIF players because of the presence of officials, and a league organization.  But with players always looking to raise their profiles, it’s a rule that truly has affected every team.  “I have to deal with it,” says Poly coach Teri Collins, “because [Jackrabbit] Megan Brock competes with her Premiere club team and they go to the NCAA Showcase every year, so I can’t play her until she’s done with that team.  Last year it was Keyana [Thompson-Shaw] and Megan.”

Kirkwood said he’d never heard of the Hispanic leagues before, but said it was now his understanding as well that many teams in the league had players participating in them.  The potential impact on Wilson’s playoff situation is huge, though it won’t be known fully until CIF releases their playoff pairings this Monday, at 12:45pm.  Being a four-seed as opposed to a two-seed (since they lost a coin flip with Poly) could mean the difference between starting out at home against a mid-seed team and starting on the road against a high-seed.  Check back at LBPostSports for more information as we get it, and for our live announcement of the playoff pairings on Monday.