Foolish Practice Hurts City Section

Now we know where all the Cold War spies have been hiding.

They’re deep undercover in the Los Angeles Unified School District and come out during playoff time to report misdeeds when their favorite teams get eliminated.

Example No. 1: Ten minutes after Fairfax High won a quarterfinal basketball playoff game against Manual Arts in 1997, school officials were told that one of their players had been illegally playing in an adult league. The player was declared ineligible and Manual Arts replaced Fairfax in the semifinals.

Example No. 2: Days after Locke lost to Westchester in a first-round football playoff game in 1998, Locke officials informed Westchester that they had suspicions a transfer student might be ineligible. Westchester was removed from the playoffs after defeating Granada Hills in the quarterfinals.

Example No. 3: Van Nuys Birmingham won its first-round baseball playoff game in 2000, then was forced to forfeit after the school received information that several players had been playing in a Sunday league.

Dorsey’s football team won an appeal Wednesday to remain in this season’s playoffs after Westchester officials alleged on Monday that the Dons used an ineligible player. The player, who was ruled to be eligible, just happened to have attended Westchester last season. And Westchester just happened to have lost to Dorsey last week.

It’s unethical for an administrator, coach, player or parent to knowingly keep damaging information quiet with the intention of one day using it to turn defeat into victory.

No one is alleging that Westchester purposely held back its suspicions until after the Dorsey defeat.

But the City Section keeps having to deal with this “gotcha” issue because it foolishly refuses to adopt a rule the Southern Section put into effect in 1995 that prevents schools from being pulled from the playoffs for an ineligible player once the playoffs begin.

The Southern Section made the decision so that individuals couldn’t manipulate the playoff system with last-minute allegations. Players can still be removed during the playoffs and teams can be stripped of titles for ineligible players. But the rule has helped prevent the yearly chaos that strikes the City Section.

It’s a wise rule that encourages people with incriminating information to come forward immediately rather than wait until the playoffs begin.

The City Section should adopt the Southern Section rule. Cheaters and rule violators need to be punished whenever they are discovered. But the tattletale mentality of trying to take out a school after losing to them on the athletic field has to stop.

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The wildest finish of the football quarterfinals happened Saturday afternoon in a driving rainstorm during the Division XIII game between North Hollywood Campbell Hall and Brentwood.

With Campbell Hall trailing, 10-7, running back J.D. Washington fumbled the ball on the Brentwood one-yard line with 30 seconds to play.

All Brentwood had to do was run out the clock.

But on the next play, quarterback Nick Henry lost the ball on the snap, and Campbell Hall’s Bryce Kristensen recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown and a 13-10 Viking victory.

“What can you say when you end up winning a game like that?” Campbell Hall Coach Anthony Harris said.

Added Brentwood Coach Patrick Brown: “I’ve been with the quarterback and the only thing we’ve done is hug each other.”

Campbell Hall (11-0-1) will play Mammoth in Saturday’s semifinal game at Van Nuys Birmingham High.

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Quarterback Tommy Grady of Huntington Beach Edison, a 6-foot-6 junior, has thrown 27 touchdown passes with only two interceptions in 11 games entering Friday night’s Division I semifinal game against Santa Ana Mater Dei at Santa Ana Stadium.

“He’s having a phenomenal year,” Coach Dave White said.

The game is a rematch from earlier this season, which Edison won, 20-13.

“It’s great for Orange County,” White said.

College coaches are reluctant to hire high school coaches because of a lack of experience, but maybe that will change after the success of former Newhall Hart offensive coordinator Dean Herrington.

In Herrington’s first year as offensive coordinator at Occidental College, the Tigers went 8-1 and his quarterback earned all-conference recognition. At Hart, Herrington produced an All-Southern Section quarterback 12 consecutive years.

It shows there are lots of innovative high school coaches whose strategies can work effectively at higher levels.

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Justin Berensen, junior varsity football coach at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, deserves an award for originality in his marriage proposal.

After his team won the Mission League championship, Berensen gathered the players around and had his girlfriend come down from the stands.

Berensen turned to his girlfriend and told her, “Winning a championship means a lot to me. The only thing I love more than football is you.”

Then Berensen dropped to one knee, pulled out a ring and asked, “Will you marry me?”

She said, “Yes.”

“The team went nuts,” Berensen said. “It sounded like the Coliseum on a Saturday afternoon.”

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.