Court upholds Capital Christian prep football playoff ban for breaking COVID-19 rules
Capital Christian High School will not play in this week’s prep football playoffs, a judge ruled Monday in upholding a playoff ban put in place by the governing body for high school sports. Judge Laurie E. Earl issued a preliminary ruling against an injunction Friday. In a short hearing Monday morning, she sternly questioned Capital Christian’s lawyer before deciding there was no information that was going to change her mind.
“There’s nothing the court heard that will change its ruling,” the judge said. “It’s adopting the preliminary ruling as its final ruling.”
Capital Christian, which won the Capital Athletic League with a 6-0 record, would have been an automatic entry into the Division III playoffs. But the Sac-Joaquin Section banned the school from appearing in the playoffs because of its participation with a short-lived club football league early in the year.
In a ruling filed Friday and made official Monday, the judge disposed of many key Capital Christian arguments made in its lawsuit and in seeking an injunction against the playoff ban.
The private school filed a lawsuit Aug. 20 in Sacramento Superior Court accusing the Sac-Joaquin Section of violating its constitutional rights, including due process. The lawsuit stems from the section’s July 29 announcement that Capital Christian High’s football team would be barred from postseason play for two seasons because of its participation with an unsanctioned club football team during the spring at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The school’s leaders argue in their lawsuit that the CIF section and its commissioner, Mike Garrison, “arbitrarily and discriminatorily” reached a decision without a hearing and without weighing evidence.
Capital Christian’s fight with the Sac-Joaquin Section dates back to February and March, when the school’s athletic facilities were leased to a club football team. The club team played games seemingly in violation of state and county health orders relating to the pandemic.
In the lawsuit, Capital Christian offers a defense of its involvement in the club games. The stadium, restrooms and locker rooms were leased on Jan. 25 to the CAPS League and the Cap City Cougars club football team. Cap City was a member of the 14-club CAPS League that played in seeming defiance of coronavirus regulations. The facilities were leased for $1,500 a month, according to the lawsuit. The league and team agreed to follow all state guidelines, according to Capital Christian.
As a result, the section placed the school on probation in addition to the postseason ban.
Monday’s ruling that the playoff ban will stay in place was preceded by a preliminary finding against Capital Christian issued Friday. In that finding, Earl said Capital Christian was unlikely to win its lawsuit against the Sac-Joaquin Section.
“Capital Christian and Cap City tried to find a loophole in the rules that would allow Capital Christian to play football at a time when schools were banned from doing so. It didn’t work,” the judge wrote. “Instead, CIF-SJS determined that the Capital Christian football team and the Cap City football team were effectively one and the same, and the appeals panel upheld that determination.”
In her ruling, the judge noted several points made by the Sac-Joaquin Section.
▪ Based on a review of Capital Christian’s rosters from the 2019-2020 school year, approximately 77 percent of Capital Christian’s football players played on the club team.
▪ Capital Christian’s athletic director Aaron Garcia was a club coach; Garcia reported that six club coaches were also Capital Christian football coaches.
▪ Capital Christian cheerleaders were present at a game in their Capital Christian uniforms. The Capital Christian mascot (a very large inflatable cougar head) was used at a pregame, and Cap City players ran through the mascot head when entering the field.
It was, the judge said, a Capital Christian team disguised as a club team.
“To paraphrase the old saying, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck (or, at a minimum, the appeal panel was justified in determining it was a duck),” the judge said.
Capital Christian head of schools Tim Wong was in contact with Mike Garrison, the section commissioner, last week, offering to sit his head coach and athletic director for a game and to surrender any home playoff games as suitable punishment in exchange for the playoff ban. The section opted to see how the judge ruled.
Vacaville Christian, Ripon Christian and Stone Ridge Christian in Merced were also put on probation for violations related to playing outside of the COVID-19 restrictions. Ripon Christian and Vacaville Christian also have temporary restraining orders with later hearing dates.
This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 10:52 AM.