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SoCalHoops High School & Prep News

Narbonne Loses Appeal; City Title Forfeit Upheld; May Lose State Title Too--(June 30, 1998)

The Los Angeles Times, in a story written by our friend Gary Klein (contributed to by Greg Sandoval) says that LAUSD's Harbor City Narbonne High, which has already forfeited it's girls' City Section 4A title, has lost its appeal to the CIF and is likely to be stripped of its state Division I championship as well.

According to the story, Jack Hayes, executive director of the state CIF, said Monday that he will discuss the issue with other state officers this week. Hayes and the other guys at the CIF responsible for making a decision are reportedly in Denver attending meetings of the National Federation of High Schools. Hayes told Klein that if Narbonne is stripped of its state championship--which would be a first in state history--he will recommend that the Division I title be left vacant, rather than awarding it to Berkeley, which Narbonne defeated in the Division I final. Doesn't seem fair, but then its only a "recommendation".

Narbonne was stripped of the City Section 4-A championship on April 17, after the City Section's rules committee led by Commissioner Barbara Feige ruled that Narbonne had committed serious and substantial recruiting violations, including falsification of addresses of athletes.

Narbonne also forfeited its last three regular-season games for using an ineligible player, will not be eligible for the City Section playoffs next season, and Portia Mitchell, a senior, and here sister, Raimi Mitchell, a junior, both big time players for Narbonne, have been barred from competing for one year, retroactive to March 2, because they apparently lived outside the district. Syreeta Stafford, who will be a junior, is ineligible retroactive to Feb. 20. As if that wasn't bad enough, the entire girls' basketball program was placed on probation for two years, although the actual ramifications of that are unclear.

Narbonne had appealed from the 11-member rules committee's actions to a three-member City Section appeals panel, which upheld the decision. The school then appealed to the state CIF, hoping that some, if not all, of the sanctions would be overturned. The CIF panel's review was apparently to ascertain whether or not the City Section had acted "arbitrarily" or "capriciously". Hayes said, "My conclusion was that the panel did act reasonably. They made a decision based on reason. It wasn't arbitrary or capricious."

Narbonne Principal Pat Donahoe told the Times that the decision is, "devastating to the program." Neither he nor Coach James Anderson said Narbonne would contest the decision in court.

Hayes said a final decision on the status of the Division I title would be made next week. But he said some good has already come from the situation. "Frankly, everybody that I've talked to in Los Angeles said what they want to see come out of this is a reaffirmation of the need to have high standards for athletic programs," Hayes said. "In this case, it would include aggressive and comprehensive examination of students' eligibility."

Hmmm. While the Narbonne case, from what we hear, is really just the tip of the iceberg as far as eligibility issues goes, we seriously doubt that it will engender any "aggressive" or "comprehensive" examination into eligibility. Maybe it should, but we really doubt it will, especially in LA's City section, and certainly not in the Southern Section, which is just too huge to begin with.