We hate to get Shakespearean with our readers and student-athletes but maybe a dose of Shakespeare is exactly what’s needed to sort out what has become a sordid affair known as the North Coast Section Division II, III, IV and V playoffs.
In a speech for the ages Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet’s opening soliloquy was “to be or not to be, that is the question.” However, for NCS coaches, athletic directors and players when they have been consulted, is “to flip or not to flip,” and it presents a question never previously pondered.
There have been caveats over the years since the NCS re-instituted playoffs for the 1975 season but there has never been anything like what is going on with this type of dilemma.
According to an email to the local media from NCS Commissioner Gil Lemmon on Thursday afternoon, all 16 teams remaining in the four divisions have responded to what their choice is, although the email says the section will not release the actual tally until after semifinal play is completed on Saturday. Prior to receiving the media email we reached out to Lemmon for additional information, some of which he responded to, and also coaches as well, some of whom were willing to discuss their choice and some were not.
We were unable to reach every coach involved but we got a significant cross section of teams projected to make the title games, and every one of them has their own reasons for what they told the NCS when they made the ultimate decision whether to flip the coin or play the game.
Before getting into the coaches’ responses it would probably be a good idea to give readers the options the teams had, of which there were more than two, and what would happen.
The criteria was head-to-head as a deciding factor of the two teams remaining, or both teams could agree to play and even forego a head-to-head, or if one of the two teams wants to flip a coin then there would be a flip and the winner would advance to the CIF NorCal Bowl Game Regionals without the benefit of an NCS championship and banner for the gym, and the loser of the flip would have its season ended.
If both teams decide to play the championship game would be held the weekend of December 7-8 and neither team would advance to the CIF NorCals since they will also be played on those dates.
The bottom line is with this type of peer pressure to play it out, it’s not surprising most of the teams responded that they want to play. We know the teams that want to flip, and although Lemmon and the NCS don’t want to disclose the actual tally, we will let those speak that wanted to while respecting the wishes of the NCS.
What Lemmon did confirm is 14 of the 16 teams queried said they wanted to play, and it didn’t surprise him.
“No, not surprised,” Lemmon responded in an email. “Knowing the importance teams place on league and Section Championships, I am not surprised. However, also knowing the goals set by teams at the beginning of the year, understand and respect any decision by a school to want to proceed to the CIF Nor-Cal, and possibly the State Championship game.”
One of the teams involved is Division IV top-seeded Moreau Catholic-Hayward and its coach Rob Gatrell. The Mariners are 11-0 and haven’t played the toughest schedule, but in the power rankings and in the view of most analysts they are a prohibitive favorite to win the title. The choice to flip or not to flip was not something Gatrell was not happy about, and when you look at his history one can certainly understand why.
In 2011 Gatrell’s Windsor team defeated Concord for the NCS D2 title. Even though the Jaguars went 14-0, under the old system that didn’t involve competitive equity, Windsor was still on “the board” but the commissioners did not select them for a Bowl Game.
The next year Gatrell left Windsor and surfaced as an assistant at Moreau. When Andrew Cotter left Moreau after last season to take the Freedom job, Gatrell was handed the reins, and at 11-0 so far he’s on a 25-game winning streak as a head coach between the two schools. Although he would not clearly say which way Moreau went, when we added things up its pretty clear Gatrell could be 27-0 as a head coach, and although he could be responsible for helping get a second school an NCS banner, neither team will get a shot at a state title.
“It’s just ridiculous that’s the options they came up with,” Gatrell said. “I think anyone that is competitive is not going to want their fate determined by a coin flip. It’s frustrating trying to keep the team focused and getting ready for a game, but I’m looking at it one game at a time and we’re trying to control what we can control.”
Coach Napoleon Kaufman of Division II second-seeded Bishop O’Dowd made no bones about his choice.
“As far as I know most of the teams don’t want to flip,” Kaufman said earlier this week before all the responses were tallied, but after he talked with the other D2 coaches in contentions. “We took a vote of the seniors and they voted not to flip and play for an NCS title. They worked hard since January and February and want it to end on the field.”
When Kaufman called on Thursday to follow up with our interview and find out what our queries of his fellow D2 coaches turned out he didn’t waver in his earlier stance.
Fifth-seeded Marin Catholic Coach Mazi Moayed echoed Kaufman. “We want to play it out,” Moayed said. “With things the way they are the season will be incomplete, but the only pure form of competition is done on the field.”
Top-seeded Rancho Cotate Coach Gehrig Hotaling was a bit reluctant to comment further after the NCS email that delayed an official announcement until after the semis are completed, however prior to that he responded with the following.
“I let my players decide one hundred percent,” Hotaling remarked. “We are playing for NCS.”
Campolindo Coach Kevin Macy of the No. 3 seeded Cougars, who is known to not be a big fan of the Bowl system, was blunt and directly to the point. He didn’t say exactly how Campolindo came to its decision but his response says it all.
“We just have to get back to the value of an NCS championship,” Macy said. “The CIF has taken over with their competitive equity system.
While it’s looking like NCS championships will be contested in Divisions II and IV it may be a horse of a different color in the Division III bracket.
According to sources familiar with Eureka the Loggers took a team vote and they want to play for an NCS title, however the players at Cardinal Newman made a different decision.
“We let our kids (seniors) decide,” Newman Coach Paul Cronin said. “We gave them the options and told them we’re not going to guide you one way or another. “We felt it’s their senior year, they’re mature kids, they can make the decision, and when they did we didn’t question them because we didn’t want to put any pressure on them.”
Many analysts and coaches felt that this might be one of the best team’s Newman has ever had, they’ve been close to a state title, and they’ve been in the NCS title game the past three years with a D4 title in 2016.
The seniors must have felt they wanted to go for the gusto and like Lemmon said, who can blame them.?
A few of the coaches interviewed had put a proposal together that was sent to the CIF that could have helped remedy the situation, but according to Macy, who was part of the group, they’ve heard nothing back.
The NCS, however, is working on something to get the teams that play for and win one of the titles in question, and can’t move on to a CIF Bowl Game, an additional Bowl game of sorts.
“For those brackets where there is a conclusion, awards will be presented, champions declared, and NCS is working with the CIF and other Northern CA Sections (right now Central Coast, Sac-Joaquin and Northern Sections) to potentially schedule one more game for the section champions,” Lemmon wrote in the Thursday email. “Any such games will not be CIF Nor-Cal Championship games, just Bowl Games, an effort to provide NCS Champions with one additional competition, as typically done through the CIF Nor-Cal Championship process.”
As of Thursday afternoon Lemmon was hopeful of the scenario working out as he said several teams have responded positively to the possibility of playing.