Huntington Beach’s Oilers Back in Playoffs

SANTA ANA —  A Superior Court judge handed the ecstatic Huntington Beach High School football team an against-the-odds victory Tuesday, ordering officials to let the Oilers back into the divisional playoffs.

As the Oilers celebrated, however, another Orange County football team--Anaheim’s Savanna High School Rebels--was stripped of its playoff berth for using an ineligible player, adding further confusion to the scheduling of postseason play that opens Thursday.

In a dramatic scene that could have come straight out of the movies, about 60 students, cheerleaders and members of the Huntington Beach team, dressed in their black-and-orange uniforms, plus several dozen parents, jumped from their seats, hooted and raised their fists as Judge Thomas N. Thrasher granted the athletes their chance to retake the field.

“I had faith the whole time that we’d beat the odds and get back into the playoffs,” said David Roman, 17, the starting right tackle who was declared ineligible, causing the team to forfeit its victories and--initially--lose its shot at the playoffs. “What I’ve learned from this is that you should never give up.”

With an 8-2 record, the Huntington Beach team made a startling turnaround this season after lagging in the Sunset League for 23 years. But the California Interscholastic Federation nullified the team’s wins and the league barred it from the playoffs after school principals discovered that Roman, who moved from Maryland last August, was not living with a parent or legal guardian--as federation rules require. Instead, the player was living with his older brother while their mother tried to sell the family house in Silver Spring, Md.

The decision to boot the Oilers out of the playoffs sparked a string of protests in the last few days, including a candlelight rally at the campus, a three-hour boycott of classes and a march by 1,500 students, teachers and parents who stopped traffic on city streets.

Under terms of the temporary restraining order issued by Thrasher, the CIF may not enforce its decisions to penalize Roman, the team or the school, which gets a share of playoff gate receipts. Thrasher ruled that even though Roman’s brother, Tony, 24, was not his legal guardian, he fulfilled the role of a guardian so the spirit of the CIF rule was not violated.

“The CIF’s position is legitimate, but circumstances in this case cry out for equitable relief,” Thrasher said. “The law should not be unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious.”

CIF attorney Andrew Patterson left the courthouse abruptly and would not comment on the ruling, so it remains unclear if league officials will appeal. Sunset League officials voted to reinstate Huntington Beach in the Division I playoffs late last night. The Oilers will play Fontana in the first round Friday.

Patterson had argued that if the residency and guardianship requirements are not enforced, schools are free to recruit players from other areas and students can “shop schools” for athletic purposes. He blamed the Oilers’ forfeiture on Huntington Beach High, saying it is the principal’s responsibility to screen athletes for eligibility.

“No matter which way this goes, there will be disappointment,” Patterson told Thrasher. “The school that prevails should be the one that did not use the ineligible player.”

But the judge was not swayed.

After the decision, jubilant Oilers who overflowed the courtroom and poured into the hallway began chanting, “CIF! CIF! CIF!” As Roman’s mother wept and hugged David, knots of players and cheerleaders embraced. Others ran up and down the hallway cheering.

“This is just fantastic,” said Reno Bellamy, president of the school’s Boosters Club, which sought the order. “This tells me someone can forget what’s written down in black and white and uphold what America’s all about.”

Tony Roman put it simply: “It shows that the innocent win.”

The team held a practice Tuesday night in anticipation of facing a playoff opponent as early as Friday. Bellamy declared that the Oilers “are good enough to beat anyone.”

Scott Cathcart, CIF Southern Section publicist, declined to speculate on the ramifications of the restraining order, saying: “We’re working at resolving the situation. (Commissioner) Stan Thomas and (administrator) Bill Clark are meeting with Sunset League representatives tonight, and we should have a decision on Wednesday morning regarding the playoffs.”

The Huntington Beach order stands as a deep disappointment to the football team from Fountain Valley High School, which had been given the Oilers’ spot in the playoffs.

Cathcart said the court order creates “a Muir High basketball situation all over again.” Pasadena’s John Muir High School was barred from the 4-A basketball playoffs in 1988 for using an ineligible player and won a restraining order reshuffling those playoffs.

The decision could have a snowball effect in the CIF’s Southern Section. La Puente High School, which forfeited six games for the same infraction last week, saw the Oilers’ victory as encouraging. Coach Rick Kunishima said he would meet with his boosters club “to see if there’s somebody who will help us” in fighting to regain the forfeited games.

“I owe it to my kids to pursue this,” Kunishima said. “We’re going after this. The forfeitures weren’t the kids’ fault. So why are they being punished? The CIF is not the NFL or the NCAA.”

Kunishima’s was a sentiment expressed by the Oilers and their advocates, too.

“It’s the worst thing in the world,” left tackle Kevin McAninch said before the Huntington Beach team won its court order. “We practice all year to turn our record around and then a little rule that has nothing to do with (playing) football takes it all away from us. I think our team should be judged on how we play football.”

Rosemarie Roman, 46, told the judge she has been in touch with the school since her son David moved to Huntington Beach. School officials knew she was still living in Maryland and never mentioned the need to submit formal papers declaring Tony Roman as David’s legal guardian, the mother said.

Thrasher agreed that “it was not reasonable under the circumstances” to require that Tony Roman be legally declared David’s guardian.

“I feel just great,” David Roman said. “I just want to go to practice.”

Times staff writers Tom Hamilton and Matt Lait contributed to this report.

INELIGIBLE PLAYER--Savanna High’s football team forfeits its championship. C1

THROWN FOR A LOSS--Prep eligibility rules bring pain to innocent players. C10