Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
New Mission High School football player being tackled during a game
The start of November marks the start of the playoffs for most high school football teams in the United States. One squad in Massachusetts was under the impression it had earned the right to compete in the postseason, but it was ultimately left on the outside looking in over an unfortunate oversight responsible for an eligibility issue.
High school football is one of the many sports where teams have to grapple with various bureaucratic issues that have the potential to throw a wrench in their season.
That includes eligibility rules that can be responsible for plenty of drama.
Those issues usually involve individual players who find themselves facing questions about their residency, which was recently a problem for the quarterback at a powerhouse in Texas and a high school in Michigan that ended up waging a battle in court after a player had his spot blown up by a real estate tour.
However, there are usually boxes an entire team has to check in order to remain in good standing with the powers that be, and one high school in Massachusetts got a tough lesson in the importance of keeping tabs on those requirements.
The English/New Mission high school football team missed the MIAA playoffs after a game was officially classified as a scrimmage
English High School and New Mission High School are both located outside of Boston and are around a 15-minute drive from each other, and the two learning institutions have fielded a joint varsity football team since 2018.
The program competes in the Boston City League, and while the Bulldogs got off to a 1-2 start this year, they capped off the season with four straight wins and a spotless 5-0 record in their league to seemingly win their first title since 2021 after clinching it (and a spot in the postseason) with a 12-6 victory over O’Bryant on Friday night.
However, according to The Boston Globe, players were treated to some rough news on Saturday morning. Per MIAA rules, all games must be registered on a platform known as ArbiterLive, and English/New Mission failed to lock in the showdown with O’Bryant ahead of the September 18th deadline.
That meant the game was officially designated as a scrimmage, which put the school one contest short of the seven-game threshold required to appear in the playoffs. The Bulldogs were slated to be a 10-seed in the Division 8 playoffs, but that spot is now occupied by Oxford.
It’s not entirely clear who was responsible for the mistake, as head coach Ryan Conway simply referred to it as “somebody’s mishap” while addressing the situation. However, it seems safe to assume they won’t make the same error again.