Blair Football Program Disbanded Over Safety Concerns; Players Not Happy With Decision

Blair’s football program played three games this year. In losses to Angelou, Inglewood and Marshall, the Vikings were outscored by a combined total of 175-3. Blair forfeited its Sept. 24 game to Fairmont Prep. But after a bye week, some players expected to compete on Oct. 6 at San Marino. According to quarterback Andreas Solling, […]

Blair’s football program played three games this year.

In losses to Angelou, Inglewood and Marshall, the Vikings were outscored by a combined total of 175-3.

Blair forfeited its Sept. 24 game to Fairmont Prep.

But after a bye week, some players expected to compete on Oct. 6 at San Marino.

According to quarterback Andreas Solling, the players were told the night before (Wednesday, Oct. 5) they were forfeiting the San Marino game and that their season was over.

The Vikings were down to approximately 20 players and getting steamrolled, so Blair principal David Ibarra stepped in and decided it could not go on any longer, because of the discrepancy of the scores and the wilting roster.

Additionally, the Blair program does not have a freshman or junior varsity team, so there was no gradual ascension once they felt the players were ready to play varsity football. They were, in some way, thrown into the fire from day one.

“We were down to 20 kids and out of those 20, six were freshman,” Ibarra said. We didn’t think they were physically or mentally ready to play varsity football. You take those six (freshman) out and we only have 14 players, and we didn’t feel comfortable putting them out there in a position to get hurt.”

Solling was born in the U.S., but raised in Denmark, where he played football and his father is a professor at the Univ. of Copenhagen.

The 15-year old quarterback acknowledged he spent a lot of time on his back and that his body has been sore from time to time, but Solling said “100 percent” of his teammates wanted to continue the season.

“We didn’t like getting blown out and we did take a beating, but that’s football,” Solling said. “You take hits. You get sore, but we loved being out there and competing. I think it was a bad decision and I feel especially bad for the seniors who’s careers are over because someone decided to take them away.”

Pasadena Unified School District athletic director Gilbert Barraza put out a statement and spoke with Pasadena Now on Monday.

“We’re going to help (Principal) Mr. Ibarra rebuild his program,” Barraza said. “They didn’t have a freshman or JV football team, they just had varsity, and the athleticism the freshman must have to compete would be incredible. We met with the community and parents and administrators. Safety is an utmost concern. They had been blown out and injuries are part of the game, but when you only have 20 kids, they have to be protected.”

We reached out to the CIF-Southern Section and Director of Communicatons, Thom Simmons said this type of move is nothing unusual, and that Blair opponents would receive wins by forfeit over the final four weeks of the regular season.

Barraza also said the players would continue to practice and work on strength and conditioning and then next year, Blair hopes to put out a junior varsity squad.

Barraza made it clear that the “1st priority is to build up to Varsity with baseline of JV.”

But what does that mean for current varsity players?

“I am looking at different schools (locally), because I played competitive football in Denmark and I don’t want to go backwards and play JV football next year” Solling said. “They talk about putting the freshman in harm’s way, but the freshman players were better than most of the older guys and they could protect themselves.”

Blair has already deleted the last four games of their schedule on the prep information site MaxPreps.

 

 

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