After winning 11 straight games, Anchorpoint has to forfeit
season
Gilroy – It wasn’t supposed to end this way.
In its first year of fielding a varsity team, Anchorpoint Christian High School had to forfeit its entire season after it was discovered the paperwork for a transfer student wasn’t filled out correctly.
Anchorpoint ended its season with an 11-game winning streak and held what would have been the Coastal Athletic League title. The league title would also have guaranteed a bid to the Central Coast Section playoffs. It is likely the Warriors would have been the No. 7 seed in the Central Coast Section playoffs and would have played against Palma in the first round.
“It’s an unfortunate thing,” said Anchorpoint coach Ken Bradley, whose team started the season 0-10 but staged a turnaround mid-way through the season. “Everybody is going to come through strong. The kids are very disappointed, but they are real mature about it. We were all crying on the field after the game Saturday. There was a lot of anger, sadness and disappointment.”
The CCS informed the Warriors Thursday that they would have to forfeit the season. Late Friday night, Bradley received word from the California Interscholastic Federation that the decision wouldn’t be overturned.
“The atmosphere on campus was very somber today (Monday),” said Anchorpoint Christian Schools president Steve White. “We’re working it through with the kids, and they have responded very well. We kind of see ourselves as a family, so everyone took it really hard. It was a real blow to our young program. Sometimes life throws you a curve, and you just have to accept it. Long-term, the kids will profit from it.”
Bradley and White met Saturday morning and decided not to inform the team until after its game that day against North Valley. The Warriors won the game 10-5, and the team started to celebrate. It wasn’t until Bradley called his team together that the players found out.
“We made a conscious decision,” White said. “We wanted the kids to be focused and do their best. Telling the kids was the most difficult thing Coach Bradley has had to do in his 20 years coaching.”
The problem arose from a player who transferred from Gilroy High last year.
“It was a simple clerical error on our part,” White said. “My understanding is that the form was completed and signed by the athlete and his parents. But there was a form or part of a form that wasn’t filled out correctly. We were operating under the assumption that since we hadn’t heard anything, it was fine. But we should have had the athlete sit out until we heard for sure.”
Eight Anchorpoint players were selected to all-league team, and the squad was unanimously given the sportsmanship award by the rest of the coaches in the league.
“We are such a tight-knit unit,” Bradley said. “That is where the strength of this team is. You can’t take away how many runs we scored and how many stolen bases we had. What was taken away from us was to see how far we could have gone. That is what saddened me.”
