Just two seasons removed from an unbeaten campaign which concluded with a CCS Division 5 title, Gilroy has canceled the remainder of its 2019 football season after a player was assaulted by teammates in the locker room following practice.
“The Gilroy High School and the Gilroy Unified School District administration are fully committed to the Gilroy High School varsity football program and completing the 2019 football season as scheduled,” the district said in a released statement. “However, the District has learned that most of the varsity players have chosen not to finish the season and therefore, at this time, the season will not continue.”
Several players were held out of last week's 21-14 loss to Alvarez, the fourth straight loss to start the season for the Mustangs, who have compiled a 1-13 record since former head coach Jubenal Rodriguez left for Monte Vista Christian following Gilroy's 13-0 season in 2017.
The Gilroy police launched their investigation the day before the Alvarez game, with names withheld due to privacy laws concerning minors. The police report, however, did state that it was four students being investigated for the assault.
Gilroy was scheduled to play at Palma this week, which was also the Chieftains' Homecoming game. The Palma staff, however, stressed keeping things in perspective despite the loss of its game.
"Everyone is worried about a football game. But there is a victim out there," Palma coach Jeff Carnazzo told John Devine of the Monterey Herald. "That's what's most important."
Gilroy was one of the best stories in 2017, when Rodriguez led the Mustangs past Menlo in the CCS title game. But since then, the program has struggled under new coach Jake Newman, who was just 24 years old when he took over. Gilroy was moved into the Gabilan Division of the revamped PCAL, and did not win a league game last year. Now comes this crushing blow, and the response from the section office shows the unprecedented nature of the decision to end the season.
“We’re kind of on new ground here. These are all school-site decisions. They have some real good people at the district level and at the school site, making decisions with the best interest of their situations," said CCS commissioner Duane Morgan in a released statement. “They’ve done their due diligence. That’s the decision they came up with and, of course, we’ll honor and respect it and we’ll move on.”
Gilroy's decision to end the season comes as an internal decision, though similar decisions have been made by administration in other cases. Last year, just outside Boston, district administrators canceled the remainder of the season for Worcester Tech when a hazing incident was discovered. Four years earlier, seven players faced criminal charges in Pennsylvania and the season was canceled for Central Bucks West when a hazing incident surfaced for the suburban Philadelphia school.
