Rancho Alamitos Forfeits Victory in Opener Due to Ineligible Player

GARDEN GROVE — Rancho Alamitos High School’s football team has forfeited its season-opening 42-0 victory over Troy because it used an ineligible player, Vaquero Coach Mark Miller said.

“It was an administrative error,” Miller said. “We have a kid who played here as a freshman, moved to Colorado last year and then returned this year to live with his grandparents.

“It was never established that his grandfather is now his legal guardian. We’ve filed a hardship with the CIF (Southern Section) and hope to get him eligible within a couple of days.

“We turned ourselves in to the CIF when an administrator discovered that the boy wasn’t living with his parents. I want to be totally honest and upfront about this. We’re not trying to recruit the Raiders to Rancho Alamitos.”

Rancho Alamitos, which has 18 starters returning, was ranked eighth in the opening Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn. poll and is favored to win the Garden Grove League title. The Vaqueros are ranked third by Cal-Hi Sports in this week’s State Division III poll.

“Nobody likes to forfeit a game, but fortunately, we discovered the problem now and not in the eighth week of the season,” Miller said.