SoCalHoops High School News

CIF SS Playoffs: Westlake In? Moorpark Out? 
What's Up With That?--(Feb. 15, 1999)

If we were Dominguez, we wouldn't worry about who's going to show up at their gym on February 19 for the first round playoff game.   Because somebody will.  But we're going to give up trying to guess who it will be.  

First it was Royal, then Moorpark, and now it looks like it's going to be Westlake.  If this wasn't so screwy it would be comical.   We can imagine the Marmonte coaches and AD's (with Dean Bradshaw, coach of Simi Valley, who finished first in league and got a No. 3 Seed in D-I-A,   just taking it all in, sitting back laughing) sitting around a meeting table late Saturday night and into Sunday morning, saying "No, you get to play them."  "No, you take Dominguez, we don't want them."   "No, you get them." 

Well, somebody's going to get them, and like it or not, it now looks like it will be Westlake instead of Royal, and instead of Moorpark.  

If the above is unclear, let's recap:   First, when the D-IIAA playoff bracket was issued, it showed "Dominguez v. Royal".  Everyone in the room who saw the No. 1 seed matched up against the Marmonte League's next-to-last place (or maybe last place) Royal team shook their heads, and there were a lot of "hmmm's" and "huh's?" going around the Gahr gym.  Then somebody checked the 1998-99 enrollment lists (contained in the Athletic Directors' Playoff Handbook sitting right there on the table at the Gahr gym) and it was discovered that Royal isn't in Division II-AA, but belongs instead in I-A. 

So about an hour later, a new "revised" bracket for both I-A and II-AA were issued.  Royal was moved into a "wild card" game with Loyola, which had petitioned for an at-large berth in I-A; the Cubs, who finished 5th in league were originally  scheduled to play Mater Dei.  Now the winner of the Royal v. Loyola game on Wednesday gets Mater Dei on Friday, Feb. 19.

So far, so good.

But by moving Royal out of II-AA, it created a big hole for Dominguez.  So, the selection committee went looking around and decided to plug in Moorpark, which had also applied for at-large status, into the Dominguez open game slot.  According to the CIF SS office, "the committee relied on the paperwork submitted by the league, which showed Royal as Marmonte's 4th place team, and Moorpark as the 5th place team."

So everyone left Sunday with the assumption that Dominguez would be facing Moorpark. Russell Otis even managed to get a scouting report from those who know Todd Tomlinson's and Sean Corkery's game, and we're certain that, to the extent Dominguez felt the need to prepare, that they were looking at the best way to beat Moorpark.

But then today's Daily News picked up on something that everyone else had apparently missed yesterday (including the CIF Southern Section's own website folks because the brackets there still have Moorpark listed as Dominguez' opponent).

For those who subscribe to the Daily News, especially those in the Moorpark/Camarillo/Oxnard area, we're betting that some of you were pretty surprised to read, on page 3 in the "Local" section, under the heading "ON DECK" that this week's "Must See" game is "Westlake at Dominguez."

Westlake at Dominguez???

What had happened to Moorpark?

We rubbed our eyes, blinked, and then wondered if we'd been sleeping too long, or missed something on Sunday when the pairings and brackets were released.  Either the Daily News knew something the rest of us didn't or something was very, very wrong for Moorpark, which had been listed as Dominguez' opponent on February 19, at Dominguez on the "revised" bracket issued Sunday.

The article not only listed the game, but also contained an analysis what what you're likely to see at the Dominguez v. Westlake game:

"Analysis:  The trip to see one of the nation's top teams will be worth it, and what a test for the Warriors.  Dominguez is ranked ninth in the USA Today national poss and is led by 7-foot sophomore Tyson Chandler.  Westlake, which wasn't originally on the playoff bracket as an oversight, is led by Jake De Gennarro's 17 points and 3.7 assists per game. Tyler Adamczyk leads with 7.9 rebounds."

We again checked the bracketing, and it still showed Moorpark. In order to get to the bottom of the story, we called the CIF Southern Section office.  A spokesperson there told us that yes, indeed, Moorpark was now out, and Westlake was in. Here's what we were told:

"When the seeding committee originally did the selection process, they looked at all of the league standings which were submitted by the league representative.  They then go through the packages, and take out the at-large petitions for those teams who are believed to be  "automatic" qualifiers.  So if a team is an "automatic" the committee won't see their at-large petition later because technically, they aren't "at large" teams.  

"In this case, the league actually made a mistake in listing Moorpark higher than Westlake, and the committee for some reason overlooked Westlake's at-large petition when it came time to re-do the bracket when Royal was moved into I-A.   And after the "revised" bracket was released, we got a call from Westlake, who informed us that they had finished higher in league than had Moorpark, and that Westlake had also properly submitted an at-large petition which had been overlooked.

"The committee took a look and determined that a mistake in the league standings had been made, determined that Westlake had in fact finished higher in league and had properly and timely submitted all the paperwork, and so Westlake was placed into the bracket in place of Moorpark."

Bottom line?   The Marmonte league screwed up its own paperwork,  submitted the wrong standings to the CIF SS committee, which relied on that erroneous paperwork. But the error was discovered in time, and corrected. 

Real bottom line: Westlake is in, and Moorpark is out.

Hey Russell:  Forget the original game plan. Just read the analysis above, courtesy of the Daily News.  You'll still be allright.

See you there.

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