Pomona High/School District sent a letter of apology to Mission Prep for not traveling and forfeiting last weeks game.
— Fred J. Robledo (@SGVNSports) September 17, 2014
Mission Prep has decided not to pursue action against Pomona for not traveling, which essentially ends issue.
— Fred J. Robledo (@SGVNSports) September 17, 2014
It's fine that Pomona sent a letter of apology to Mission Prep, but did they also send an apology letter to its players, who it let down?
— Fred J. Robledo (@SGVNSports) September 17, 2014
MONDAY UPDATE: Pomona High School could face far more costly ramifications than just a forfeited game for its football team after the Red Devils failed to honor a contract to play Mission Prep of San Luis Obispo in a nonleague road game last Friday night.
The result will go into the record books as a loss for the Red Devils, who didn’t make the trip after district officials determined that a four-hour ride to Mission Prep and a four-hour ride back were not in the best interest of the players, according to a statement last week by Pomona Unified School District administrative director Fernando Meza.
“Once we understood students would have to ride on the bus for four hours, warm-up, play the game and travel back four hours, we looked at what’s in the best interest of the students and the long bus rides didn’t seem to be in the best interest of the kids.” — Fernando Meza, the Administrative Director at Pomona Unified School District,
My thoughts: The explanations don’t cut it. Why schedule a game in August then decide a week before it’s played not to play it because of travel cost? Or travel time? When I learned Mission Prep offered to pay for the trip, not sure I was convinced with the Pomona Unified School District’s answer that the long bus ride wasn’t in the best interest of the kids. Mission Prep is making four trips the same length and teams are traveling out of state to play high school football. If someone offers to pay your travel cost once a game already is established, isn’t it the right thing to at least play? Wouldn’t you owe Mission Prep that, who is forced to miss a game that already was agreed upon? You decide, I welcome your comments.