Brethren Christian not playoff bound
Brethren Christian could have won all of its 10 high school football games this year, and it still would have missed the CIF Southern Section Division 10 playoffs.
The crazy part is that the Warriors almost did win every game.
Brethren Christian went into its regular-season finale ranked No. 4 in Division 10, and its season ended at home on Thursday. Home is where the Warriors will be this postseason.
Brethren Christian Coach Pat McInally said he recently found out from the section that there isn’t any room in the 16-team bracket in Division 10 for an at-large entry like Brethren Christian, which is a freelance team and doesn’t belong to a league. The news obviously disappointed McInally.
“We’re the fourth-ranked team in the division and we just beat the No. 1 team in Division 7, three divisions above us, so how is it possible [that we cannot make the playoffs]?” said McInally, whose team converted a two-point conversion to pull out a dramatic 50-49 double-overtime win at St. Margaret’s last week. “There’s not a time in the history of CIF that a team can go 9-1 and not make the playoffs. That I know of.”
Thom Simmons, the section spokesperson, said the section informed Brethren Christian why the Warriors will not qualify for the playoffs.
“The reason is because there are more automatic qualifiers [from leagues] that [have] already qualified in the bracket than there are [spots] in the bracket, so we’re probably going to end up eliminating third-place teams from leagues,” said Simmons, adding that 14 programs have clinched a playoff berth, while nine are vying for the last two spots this week.
“The problem for Brethren Christian is that it used to be in a league, the Academy League. When Sage Hill went to eight-man football [in May], that left [the Academy League] with only three teams. You cannot have a league with three teams. The Blue Book states that a league is comprised of four or more teams. At that point, those three remaining schools [Brethren Christian, St. Margaret’s and Crean Lutheran] had to become what’s called freelance schools, and in the sport of football, freelance schools are considered to be a part of the at-large pool, and the only time you take at-large teams is when you have openings in the bracket. Obviously in this particular case there will be no openings.”
Simmons said the 14 schools advancing to the Division 10 playoffs are San Bernardino Aquinas (7-2), Alta Loma (4-5), Beckman (5-4), Cerritos Gahr (7-2), Grand Terrace (7-2), Lawndale Leuzinger (7-2), San Luis Obispo Mission Prep (4-4), Riverside J.W. North (4-5), Pasadena Poly (8-0), Riverside Rubidoux (9-0), Santa Fe (5-4), Long Beach St. Anthony (7-2), Indio Shadow Hills (6-3) and Hemet West Valley (3-6).
Going into this week, Aquinas was tied for first place in the Ambassador League, Alta Loma was tied for third in the Mt. Baldy League, Beckman was second in the Pacific Coast League, Gahr was third in the San Gabriel Valley League, Grand Terrace was tied for second in the Sunkist League, Leuzinger was in first in the Pioneer League, Mission Prep was in third in the Northern League, J.W. North was in second in the Inland Valley League, Poly was in first in the Prep League, Rubidoux was in first in the Mountain Valley League, Santa Fe was tied for first in the Del Rio League, St. Anthony was in first in the Santa Fe League, Shadow Hills was in third in the Desert Valley League, and West Valley was tied for third in the Mountain Pass League.
Out of those 14 schools, calpreps.com only rates Gahr (26.3), St. Anthony (25.4) and Leuzinger (24.8) higher than Brethren Christian (20.8).
“There are third-place teams and there are teams with [worst records than us going to the playoffs],” said McInally, who had a talented enough team to go as far or deeper than last year’s team did in reaching the semifinals of the East Valley Division playoffs. “We’re [going to finish] 9-1 and the only loss was a forfeit [in the season opener to Ocean View] because we made a clerical error on a kid that came from a school … that didn’t even have football.”
The section ruled the player ineligible to play in Brethren Christian’s 15-7 win on Aug. 26. Two months later, the section made it clear that the Warriors aren’t playoff eligible, despite a near-perfect season.
FOOTBALL PLAYOFF PAIRINGS
The CIF Southern Section plans to release the football playoff pairings on Sunday on its website, www.cifss.org, starting at 8 a.m.
The local programs who have a shot at earning a top-four seed are Edison and Corona del Mar. The Chargers were ranked No. 2 in Division 3 this week, while the Sea Kings were No. 3 in Division 4.
NEWPORT’S MICHAELSEN STANDS OUT
Newport Harbor senior Alex Michaelsen was one of the top long snappers during Chris Rubio’s camp at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame on Sunday.
Michaelsen was one of around 80 long snappers competing from California, Nevada, Arizona, New Hampshire and Colorado. He is one of the top long snappers in Southern California.
