Castle football team may have to forfeit game

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Defending O'ahu public school football champion Castle High probably will have to forfeit its first OIA game next season against Mililani.

Twenty-five returning players have been suspended from the first game because they were ejected from the state high school championship game in December for leaving the team bench area during a brawl that broke out late in the fourth quarter. Castle has only six returning players who are eligible for the game.

"Most of them really weren't involved (in the brawl) but the officials made the right ruling" in ejecting them, Castle athletic director Richard Haru said last night.

Under O'ahu Interscholastic Association rules, a player who is ejected by officials is not eligible for his next game, and if it happens in the final game of the year, they are ineligible for the first league game of the following season.

"We went through the appeals process" and the ruling was upheld, Haru said.

"If we don't have enough numbers so that it is going to be a safety factor, we are inclined to forfeit," Haru said. "We don't want our kids in a situation that compromises their safety."

The decision will be made during preseason, Haru said, when coach Nelson Maeda can see how many eligible players he has. Tryouts will begin Aug. 4.

"It's very disappointing," Maeda said. "Although the players technically violated the rule by walking onto the field, I would have hoped that common sense would have prevailed" in the ruling.

The game is scheduled Aug. 29. "We lost to them last year and finished the regular season only 4-3, but then we went on a good run in the playoffs," Haru noted.

He said Castle would not promote members of the junior varsity for the game because under OIA rules they would have to remain on the varsity all season.

The altercation in the final 43 seconds of the state championship game was "a heat of the moment" thing and the result has been "a lesson learned," Haru said. The game was not completed because there were not enough players left on their team after the ejections and the score at the time — Saint Louis 34, Castle 15 — was declared final.

Castle had 44 players on its state tournament roster. Thirteen were seniors, leaving the Knights with six returnees who are eligible for the first game, Maeda said.