The Season is Over

Scorpion RB Conrad Kotake with

Spartan TE Ben Quantock

This picture was taken after the Camarillo-Rio Mesa game of course and is a sign of the respect that the two rival football programs have for each other.

One thing I learned a long time ago in football is that you need to take care of business on the field and not let the fates and/or a committee decide your future.

Unfortunately, we didn't take care of business on the field and both the fates and a committee decided that our season and the high school careers of a great group of Seniors were indeed over.

First, the fates.

As we learned on Thursday night soon after our Camarillo game was over, the three way tie for second place in the Pacific View League was broken via a coin flip. The 7-3 Channel Islands Raiders won the flip that secured them the PVL's second and final guaranteed Western Division playoff spot. At the same time a similar coin flip in the San Gabriel Valley League to break up a three way logjam for first place saw two 5-5 teams, Paramount and Downey, win the #1 and #2 seeds respectively from their league thus placing 7-3 Dominguez into the pool of potential Wild Card schools. The potential Wild Card pool also swelled due to 5-5 Inglewood coming in second in the Ocean League with 7-3 Culver City thus being slotted into the battle for one of the four Wild Card bids.

Now for the committee.

As we saw it, seven teams were in the hunt for the four Wild Card spots. The clear cut leader was St. Francis with an 8-2 record. The other six teams (Culver City, Dominguez, Gahr, Rio Mesa, San Luis Obispo and St. Paul) all shared identical 7-3 records.

At 8:00 a.m. today the C.I.F. announced the list of Wild Cards. The words Rio Mesa did not appear on that list. In were Culver City, Dominguez, San Luis Obispo and St. Francis.

Understandable but still very heart breaking . . .

The 2011 C.I.F. Western Division playoffs will start this coming Friday and will continue each Friday through December 9th when a champion is crowned.

The playoff brackets are:

Culver City (7-3) Ocean League Wild Card at

Serra (8-2) Mission League #1

Downey (5-5) San Gabriel Valley League #2 at

Righetti (7-3) PAC-7 League #2

Channel Islands (7-3) Pacific View League #2 at

Santa Monica (9-1) Ocean League #1

Dominguez (7-3) San Gabriel Valley Wild Card at

Ventura (10-0) Channel League #1

Inglewood (5-5) Ocean Lerague #2 at

Chaminade (8-2) Mission League #2

San Luis Obispo (7-3) PAC-7 League Wild Card at

Camarillo (7-3) Pacific View League #1

St. Francis (8-2) Mission League Wild Card at

Paramount (5-5) San Gabriel Valley League #1

Dos Pueblos (3-7) Channel League #2 at

Arroyo Grande (9-1) PAC-7 League #1

NUTS.