Narbonne High, the football team that hasn’t played since Sept. 27 because four coaches in the Marine League decided to forfeit games against the Gauchos, has been awarded the No. 1 seed for the City Section Open Division playoffs that begin on Nov. 15.
The first challenge for the Gauchos (8-2) is to overcome seven weeks off. Coach Malcolm Manuel said the team has been practicing and staying in shape waiting for the opportunity to return to the field. It will happen with a home game on Nov. 15 against No. 8-seeded Dorsey. Carson is No. 2, San Pedro No. 3 and Birmingham No. 4.
“I expect kids to make a little bit of mistakes, but we’ll be a lot more ready to go than when we played Oaks Christian in a scrimmage and Garfield in the first game,” Manuel said. “That’s one big thing — everyone is healthy.”
The coaches at Carson, Banning, Gardena and San Pedro forfeited games in protest of alleged rule violations against Narbonne but never submitted any evidence to the City Section. They will end their boycott because not playing the Gauchos in the playoffs would result in being banned from the 2025 playoffs.
A semifinal meeting between Narbonne and Birmingham is possible.
The other openers have Gardena at Birmingham, Banning at San Pedro and Garfield at Carson.
Divisions I, II and III will start on Friday. Still to be finalized is a site for the championships games. El Camino College is among the sites being considered for the finals on Nov. 29-30. Eagle Rock is the No. 1 seed in Division I.
As for how the Gaucho players have been dealing with their inaction, Manuel said, “They’ve actually had a good attitude about it. The first few weeks were really hard on them. They didn’t understand what it was like not being able to play games. They’ve been having fun at practice, competing at practice.”
Defending champion Birmingham takes a 47-game City Section winning streak into the playoffs and hasn’t lost to a City team since the 2017 season.
Also announced on Saturday were the girls flag football playoff pairings. San Pedro received the No. 1 seed for the Open Division with Marshall No. 2. Birmingham won last year’s inaugural championship and is seeded No. 5. The Open Division begins Nov. 13. Divisional finals will be held at Crenshaw on Nov. 23.