Ganesha advanced to play Loyola in the high school baseball championship for the Southern Section Division II in California on Saturday. However, the Giants were prepared to play without their best players.
A large chunk of the roster, and head coach Jared Sandler, may or may not show up.
The Ganesha high school baseball program is at serious risk of punishment if the lineup for the championship game on Saturday is not complete. We’ll see…
Ganesha will play for a district championship in high school baseball.
Ganesha High School is located in Pomona, California. It enrolls ~800 students in Grades 9-12.
However, the baseball team is not only made up of students at the school. Most of the players on the roster are enrolled at the Baseball Performance Academy. They are allowed to compete at Ganesha because of the school’s online program. Their head coach is also the founder and director of BPA.
The Ganesha baseball team is as close to a travel-ball team as it gets, which is where things get messy.
According to Fred Robledo of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, a large number of the Giants players were already scheduled to attend an out-of-state camp in Mississippi on Saturday and were likely going to miss the Southern Section Division II championship. As a result, Ganesa was prepared to play the game without its best players. A majority of the starting lineup (and coaching staff) was going to be out of town.
Ganesha petitioned to the CIF Southern Section to move the championship game to Friday so the players could attend the out-of-state camp on Saturday. Its request was denied.
Sandler gave Robledo the following explanation:
“We are dealing with a very sad and disappointing situation. We have a lot of players and their families who are traveling out of town. (Ganesha athletic director Don Cayer) emailed CIF asking if we could play anytime Friday and if they could accomodate that. CIF responded by giving us the last game on Saturday. Our coaches, players and parents are very upset with CIF being so unwilling to work with us.”
Travel plans were already set in place.
“It is to expensive for most families to change their trips this late. With the expensive gas prices, the cost for flights is outrageous right now. We should be playing for back-to-back CIF championships and (right) now we are just trying to get enough players to play the game. It is beyond disappointing.”
Thus, the Giants were planning to field a team of backups.
Starting pitcher Logan Schmidt was expected to be on the mound for the championship game. He is an LSU commit who will likely be picked in the first round of the MLB Draft.
Starting catcher Dyson Grant is committed to Oregon State. Pitcher/outfielder Ford Stoen is committed to Purdue. They are all scheduled to be in Mississippi on Saturday instead of California.
The CIF is cracking down.
Ganesha head coach Jared Sandler made it clear earlier in the season that his players do not care all that much about the high school baseball season. They don’t even post their stats online.
“Most of them (players) have never played high school before and really don’t care too much about it so we don’t bother with (posting) stats. They are all committed to college, so they are playing to get ready for that. We just play the games to get some work in so they keep developing their skills. Really, all we are focused on is player development. We are just trying to get them ready for college and the draft.”
It appears as though the Giants cared more about the camp in Mississippi than the district championship and were prepared to make a mockery of the final by playing its backups and junior varsity players. However, the California Interscholastic Federation is prepared to hold them accountable.
CIF Bylaw 600 prohibits high school student-athletes in California from competing on an “outside” team in the same sport during their high school season of sport. Ganesha would be in direct violation of this rule if its players skip the Southern Section District II championship to attend the camp in Mississippi.
That puts the school at risk of punishment, which could stem from a postseason ban and probation to a full revocation of CIF membership. The executive director of the CIF is completely onboard with whatever the Southern Section decides.
Now we wait. A spokesperson for the Pomona Unified School District, which oversees Ganesha, said on Friday night that the Giants will play in the District II championship as planned. The head coach and all of his players will supposedly be at the game. The district is not paying expenses for out-of-town players to return from Mississippi on Saturday. This issue “has been resolved.”
We’ll see…