It's the kind of story that you almost can't make up. A Los Angeles high school football team which was awarded a spot in the California Interscholastic Federation City Section Division II playoffs was kicked out of its scheduled game because no members of the team's coaching staff showed up for a Saturday afternoon film exchange with their scheduled opponent.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles (Calif.) Washington Prep was required to send a coaching representative to a film exchange with its scheduled opponent, Los Angeles (Calif.) Marshall High. Washington Prep did send a coach to the 1 p.m. meeting, but that assistant coach showed up without any game film to exchange.
As a result, the City Section was left with no choice but to disqualify the team for failing to meet standard guidelines, an eventuality that was made more infuriating by City Section assistant commissioner John Aguirre's exhaustive efforts to ensure that Washington did bring game tape to the meeting; according to the Times, the assistant commissioner called Washington football coach Cornell Ward multiple times to arrange the exchange at any time that would be convenient for a representative of the program.
Of course, what all this means is that an innocent team of football players who earned a spot in the regional playoffs are now forced to sit at home, purely because of their coaching staff's outright ineptitude.
"I'm very disappointed," Washington Prep athletic director Kim Bly told the Times.
She should be. Prep Rally is willing to bet that if she checks with her football players, they'll be pretty upset, too.
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