Castle to appeal ejection of players in state title game

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Castle High will appeal the referee's decision to eject all players from both teams in last Friday's state football championship between St. Louis and Castle at Aloha Stadium.

Castle athletic director Richard Haru said yesterday he would file the appeal with the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association, which sponsored the tournament. The appeal is not to change the outcome of the game, but to reverse the ejection of all the players. He said there is a question whether "all" of the players actually left the bench. By O'ahu Interscholastic Association rules, players and coaches ejected from a game are suspended for the next scheduled game, even if it occurs the following season.

For Castle, that means all underclassmen returnees would be ineligible for the 2003 opener against Mililani, meaning only new players and those moving up from the junior varsity would be available, Haru said.

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu does not have the same ejection rule, so St. Louis is not affected.

"There's an issue of safety," Haru said. "Say we have only 18 players, I would be inclined to forfeit."

Haru added that a forfeit would not be fair to Mililani because it would be denied a game even though it had nothing to do with the events of Friday's game.

Haru added that he concurred with the referee's decision to end the game with 43 seconds showing on the game clock because Castle could not change the outcome during that time while St. Louis had the ball. But he said if the incident happened in the first half, it is likely a different decision might have been made.

In the last state baseball tournament, Kamehameha and Wai'anae benches emptied on to the field during a fourth-inning scuffle between two players.

Only the two involved players were ejected, and the game resumed. The only conditions changed were that players not in the lineup had to stay in the runways behind the Les Murakami Stadium dugouts until they were summoned by their coaches to enter the game.

In the Castle-St. Louis game, a fight broke out in the closing seconds of the state title game when St. Louis was trying to run out the clock. When the St. Louis offense broke the huddle, it imitated a scene from the movie, "The Longest Yard." Upon St. Louis setting at the line, Castle linebacker Cory Daniel flew over the line of scrimmage prematurely, setting off a fight that cleared both benches. Though punches and kicks were witnessed, the players were separated quickly. Daniel said after the game it was a "mis-timed blitz."

Haru said regardless if his players might have been baited into an unsportsmanlike act, his school still takes responsibility for its action.

Ironically, Castle and St. Louis players are on the same team for tomorrow's Hawai'i Union Builders Goodwill Classic. At a recent practice, The Advertiser asked Daniel and St. Louis' Bobby George if there was animosity from the incident, and both said no.

State association executive director Keith Amemiya said an appeals committee has been formed. The committee will be made up of himself, HHSAA football coordinator Don Botelho, football commissioners (referees' group) Lloyd Hisaka and Glenn Young, and OIA football coordinator Richard Townsend. Amemiya said a decision would not be made for at least several weeks because some parties will be attending an athletic directors conference in San Antonio this weekend.

Amemiya commended St. Louis coach Delbert Tengan and Castle coach Nelson Maeda for their "quick and decisive action to break off the fight," adding the incident could have escalated with spectators entering the fray. After a cooling-off period, the teams shook hands without further incident.

Because this was the second bench-clearing incident in an HHSAA tournament this year, Amemiya warned all schools that such incidents must end, because they could endanger the participants and spectators.

"In the future, we might be less forgiving if the teams leave their bench area," he said. "And we will not hesitate and call a double forfeit."

Amemiya said some players and coaches might not be aware that it is a national federation rule to eject players for leaving their bench during a confrontation on the field.

"Unfortunately, a lot of our athletes' behavior is patterned after college and professional leagues," he said. "It many ways, that may be the worst example to follow on behavior on the playing field."

It was the second high school football game during the season to be called with time remaining on the game clock. Officials ended the Oct. 4 Pearl City at Nanakuli football game when Chargers players entered the playing field during a fight. The officials ended the game with about 20 seconds left instead of ejecting all of the players, a move that prevented Pearl City from a possible forfeit of its next game for lack of players, head of OIA officials Jim Beavers said.

Haru added that if Castle's appeal fails with the HHSAA, he will make an appeal to the OIA football committee. Haru said he is a member of that committee, but would recuse himself for the issue.