CIF approves expanding to five bowl games
HIGH SCHOOL REPORT
Riverside North coach is released. Eagle Rock coach doesn't get job back.
The CIF Federated Council gave approval Friday to continue the state championship bowl games after holding a two-year pilot program. It also agreed to expand the bowl games from three divisions to five, effective next season.
Still to be decided by June are specifics regarding logistics, such as event dates, sites and what changes might be made in the selection process to the games that match Southern California representatives against Northern California representatives.
"I'm excited about the Federated Council's decision to increase the football championships to five divisions," CIF Executive Director Marie Ishida said in a statement. "Now the work begins. We will be sending out RFPs [request for proposals] for a location or locations for the games. What develops from those proposals will help dictate the format of the event in terms of whether the games take place at single or multiple sites."
The three division championship games were held on the same day at the Home Depot Center in Carson each of the last two years.
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Lou Randall, who won his second consecutive Southern Section Eastern Division title in the fall, was released as football coach at Riverside North.
Principal Dale Kinnear said he was hoping to elevate the program as it prepares to move into a new league this fall with the former Mountain View League members, including Division I state bowl finalist Corona Centennial.
Getting more athletes into four-year colleges is one area that Kinnear would like to see improved, he said. Centennial is expected to have as many as four players sign Division I scholarships next month.
"I would like to see a level of greatness on and off the field," said Kinnear.
In addition to going 27-1 while winning the back-to-back section titles, the Huskies also won the Division V championship in 2003 under Randall, who was 53-12 overall at the school.
Randall, who previously coached at Chino Hills Ayala, Chino, Garden Grove and Moreno Valley Canyon Springs, was expected to remain as a physical education teacher at the school. He did not return calls seeking comment.
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Eagle Rock Principal Salvador Velasco finally broke his silence on his relieving Jerry Chou of his head football coaching duties Jan. 12, saying "it was not possible" for Chou to get his job back.
