As Archbishop Murphy football mess plays out, kids suffer

I feel bad for the kids.

By now you’re probably aware of the mess that’s going on with the Archbishop Murphy High School football team and the Cascade Conference. The Wildcats have a historically good team this season. One with Class 2A state championship ambitions. One that outscored its first three opponents 173-0.

Since then Archbishop Murphy hasn’t been able to get a game. Four successive Cascade Conference opponents — South Whidbey, Sultan, Granite Falls and this week, Cedar Park Christian-Bothell — forfeited their games against the Wildcats, citing the inability to compete physically and safety concerns. The last time Archbishop Murphy took the field for a game was Sept. 16 against King’s, and there’s no guarantee the remaining contests on the Wildcats’ regular-season schedule will be played, either.

By a twist of fate, I just happened to be at Archbishop Murphy’s last game. The sudden departure of our two prep reporters at the beginning of the school year has me spending my Friday nights getting reacquainted with high school football, and one of my assignments was to cover that Archbishop Murphy-King’s contest.

I was struck by the tone at King’s High School’s stadium before the game. The sentiment from those on the King’s side was something I never expected from a school that excels at sports in its own right: They didn’t care about the result, they just didn’t want anyone to get hurt. Once the game was over, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a group more upbeat after getting beat 38-0.

So the concern is real.

The crux of the issue is that Archbishop Murphy is a private school, meaning it has access to a different pool of student athletes than public schools, which are limited by geographic boundaries. Then there’s the fact that the Wildcats play in the Cascade Conference, a league comprised largely of public schools based in smaller communities.

That’s a bad matchup from a competitive standpoint, and it’s resulted in a situation unlike anything I’ve ever seen in more than two decades as a sports reporter.

It makes me sad for the kids.

I’m sad for the Archbishop Murphy players, who just want to play football. They’re having their season taken away.

I’m sad for the players from Archbishop Murphy’s opponents. These kids were put in the unenviable position of either being put in harm’s way or being the target of criticism for backing out.

Some want to lay all the blame at Archbishop Murphy’s doorstep, a just comeuppance, they say, for the sin of recruiting at the high school level. But private schools excelling against public-school foes is not a new phenomenon. When I was in and around high school in Seattle, O’Dea was the big heavy. The private Catholic school won three state titles in four years during the 1990s.

I don’t know the solution. Having been removed from the high school sports world for a long time I can’t claim to be up to date on all the rules and regulations. And I’m sure I would need to hear more of the arguments on both sides to be able to form a clear and nuanced opinion on exactly what should be done.

One thing that does seem clear is that it would be best if Archbishop Murphy and the Cascade Conference parted ways, something Wildcats athletic director and football coach Jerry Jensen said himself during the school’s press conference addressing the situation last Wednesday.

Archbishop Murphy reportedly has tried to do that in the past, only to run into roadblocks. If that’s the case, maybe it’s time for the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association to step in. I’ve heard complaints that the WIAA is toothless, but we saw the organization take action in the case of Bellevue, and this seems like a far less sticky situation than that one. Surely the WIAA can help facilitate a move into another conference where there would be a more level playing field.

But there’s no question that this is a situation that needs to be dealt with, and soon.

The kids deserve nothing less.

For more on the Seattle sports scene, check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at www.heraldnet.com/tag/seattle-sidelines, or follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.