Four Marine League football coaches who had their teams forfeit games against Narbonne last season in protest of the City Section and Los Angeles Unified School District failing to investigate alleged rule violations in the Gauchos’ program are feeling a bit of vindication after a Narbonne booster said he paid parents of players to transfer to the Harbor City school.
They believe their actions were warranted to highlight the issues seen off the field in high school football despite receiving criticism from some. An LAUSD investigation eventually determined a group of Narbonne players were ineligible, and the City Section imposed a three-year playoff ban on Narbonne for rule violations.
Mike Christensen, the former Carson football coach, said he’s “sad” that the booster Brett Steigh has admitted involvement in the ongoing Bishop Montgomery football scandal that has resulted in the team’s season coming to an end. Steigh also helped finance St. Bernard’s football program, which shut down its team in 2021, 2022 and 2023 following the resignation of coach Manuel Douglas, a former Narbonne coach.
Christensen said coaches who participated in the forfeits last year faced repercussions from school district personnel, “but it needed to be done.”
“My relationship with my principal was never the same,” Christensen said.
Perhaps the coach under the most pressure was former Banning coach Raymond Grajeda, who was the first to forfeit his league game to Narbonne. Then the three others followed.
“We got punished hard from the district office,” Grajeda said. “It was one of the reasons for me quitting.”
He said all the rumors about money changing hands and school officials declining to investigate without evidence was motivation to the coaches as a unit to try to stop the rule violations.
“Everything was true,” Grajeda said. “We live in the community. Some of those deals that went down, they were in our backyard. If you’re going to do the transfer thing, do it right. I feel some sense of relief. The future of football in this area, we want to be competitive and fair.”
Former Gardena coach Monty Gilbreath said, “I think it turned out to be good because we were able to bring attention what was going on and caused the City Section to take a closer look. We knew as coaches it was a fact. We didn’t have the means to prove it.”
Christensen retired, Gilbreath resigned as did Grajeda, who now spends his time watching his freshman daughter play flag football for Banning.
Only San Pedro coach Corey Walsh kept coaching this season.
“I do not care at all,” Walsh said of the reaction to the booster accepting responsibility for the illegal payments. “We’re playing Great Oak this week. I was trying to see the bigger picture. I knew where this was headed if something didn’t change.”
Christensen said last January he was attending a coaches’ convention when several coaches came up to him and thanked him for taking a stand last fall.
“This has to stop,” he said.
