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Thursday should be a magical day for the Hillsdale baseball team as the Knights will be playing for their first-ever Central Coast Section title.
But that championship game appearance at San Jose’s Excite Ballpark coincides with Hillsdale’s graduation ceremony, forcing the 11 seniors on the baseball team to choose: walk in their graduation in a ceremony that begins at 5:30 p.m. or play ball at 8 p.m.
It’s a decision Hillsdale athletic director James Madison said is a brutal one.
“I don’t think, no matter the excuse, I don’t think kids should have to make this decision,” Madison said. “I think our focus, from here on out, should be what guidelines we can put in place about this never happening again.”
CCS president Steve Sell, who has no say or decision-making powers in any changes to be made, sympathizes with both Hillsdale and CCS.
“CCS is not happy about it,” Sell said. “They don’t want this to happen.”
But at this point, the section doesn’t have a lot of options. With the game being played at a so-called “premier site,” the formerly known San Jose Municipal Stadium, means the venue calls most of the shots.
“When you got to neutral, premier sites, you lose some flexibility and control,” Sell said. “I understand the frustrations. If we were doing this in 2021, (playing the final game) at the school of the higher-seed site, this is no problem.”
Sell said the contract with the home of the San Jose Giants means they are pretty much locked into the date and time though Sell said CCS tried to help Hillsdale by moving the title game to 8 p.m.
“When confronted with no other options, I think (CCS commissioner Dave Grissom) made reasonable accommodations,” Sell said. “He does have a duty not to burn bridges at sites we like to use.”
Sell said this is the result of what the majority of schools in the section wanted: they wanted the CCS championship games to be special and wanted to host title games at special venues.
“It’s (the CCS commissioner’s job) to enforce the bylaws that the high schools make,” Sell said.
Added Madison: “I get some of the reasoning for it. … There are a number of nice high school facilities (we could have used). If we had gone with that instead of a big-money contract … then we wouldn’t be in this position.”
Madison said there are three options for those seniors who are on the team and the hope is those who choose to do so can do both.
“We’ve made all the preparations that can be made to be ready at 8 o’clock tomorrow,” Madison said. “There are three options. No. 1, they skip graduation altogether. No. 2, we’ve modified graduation to honor the baseball players who want to be honored (early in the ceremony) and still get to the game. Hopefully, we can get them out by 6:15 and hopefully get (to San Jose) by 7:30, get loose and be ready to play.
“The last option is, [the players] want to experience the high school graduation in full and not go to the game. That’s a difficult decision.”
Sports Editor
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Karl Sonkin said:
Just wondering: where will she go?
D Gilbrech said:
Dirk van Ulden said:
Dirk van Ulden said:
Newell Post said:
Where is the USC marching band when we really need them? This is a football game, after all.
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(3) comments
How they anyone lump graduations into the same category as holidays and senior trips ?
If you notice on the bracket SH Cathedral forfeited their game vs. Menlo.
I’m wondering if they were in the same graduation predicament back then in 2010, and graduation won the day there?
The premier venue excuse and being afraid to say anything to change the time and/or day is the most horrible excuse I’ve ever heard.
Don’t the people running the venue have kids? Wouldn’t they by sympathetic to this quandary?
And unless the venue has upgraded since the last time I’ve been there, the dugouts are certainly NOT premier.
BTW, the first line of the article isn’t quite accurate.
Hillsdale played in a Final game in 2010 and lost 8-2 vs. Menlo School in Division III.
Graduating seniors already lost two years of their high school experience to COVID. Now this. Those in charge need to do better and remember what is at the core of high school and sports: the kids.
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