Ripon Christian ruled out of the postseason after court upholds playoff ban
There will be no postseason for the Ripon Christian High School football team.
Judge Erin Guy Castillo on Thursday ruled that the school’s “application for preliminary injunction is denied”, essentially upholding the Sac-Joaquin Section’s playoff ban.
“We lost, we are out.” RC head coach Phil Grams said in a text message to The Bee on Thursday.
Ripon Christian finished second in the Southern League and was projected to be one of the top seeds in Division VII. Earlier this year, the section banned the program from the playoffs for two seasons because of its alleged participation in a club football league last winter.
Since the beginning, Knights’ head coach Phil Grams has contested that his school did not violate any of the section’s rules for club football.
He said his Knights Outdoor Fitness and Skillz Academy club football team, which played five games last spring in the Petaluma-based California Association of Private Sports league, or CAPS, had no affiliation with the private school.
To be legal within section rules, club football teams must rent the facilities and equipment they use and cannot be associated with their school, which makes club football rare.
After the ban was announced this summer, Grams contended the section’s evidence was “not a statement of fact. It was a statement of what the CIF thought.”
Last week, the Knights were granted a Temporary Restraining Order in San Joaquin County Superior Court against the section, which, had it been upheld, would have prevented the enforcement of the ban, allowing the Knights to participate the postseason, scheduled to start for most divisions on Friday.
Per judge’s order, the Section appeared in court Thursday “to attempt to provide any basis justifying its action and demonstrate why a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of the sanctions should not remain in place while the legal proceedings play out.”
In the end, the judge ruled against the Ripon school.
Wrote Grams in a Tweet Thursday: “This group of SRs worked as hard as anybody over the last 18 months to go to postseason, they earned it, but were denied the opportunity by people outside of the lines Love these guys, last practice.”
The Knights played their final game of the season on Friday night in a 28-20 win over Delhi. They finished the season 7-3 overall, 4-2 in the Southern League, runner-up to champion Waterford.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 7:46 PM.
