The Mountain View High School football team has decided to forfeit their Conference 12 League championship game on Thursday night, due to five players being suspended over an inappropriate social media post.
After Mountain View’s 14-0 win over Rosemead High School last week, a photo showing several Mountain View players pretending to make gun gestures with their hands surfaced on social media, according to Fred Robledo of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
“It was an inappropriate post and our players should be better. Our school determined it was a dangerous post. You shouldn’t be making gun gestures,” Mountain View head coach Mark Paredes was quoted as saying.
“It’s too bad. We should have been celebrating our first win over Rosemead in 40 years and getting ready to play for a (league) championship game. Instead, we’re talking about this and not playing a game. It’s a hard lesson to learn,” he added.
Paredes also claimed that Rosemead’s players also made a gun gesture on social media before the game, and his players’ doing so after the game was a response to that. But this allegation hasn’t been confirmed.
Mountain View, who is located in El Monte, Calif., chose to forfeit Thursday’s night’s game for safety reasons.
Paredes also addressed the decision to forfeit the game instead of playing without the five suspended players.
“We’re not a deep roster. You take five two-way starters away, it completely depletes us. It’s a real tough lesson to learn. Our kids come from tough neighborhoods, and they deal with a lot of obstacles, and this was a big opportunity for them. It is what it is. They will learn from it,” the SGV Tribune reported Paredes said.
Arroyo High School (6-4), who Mountain View (3-7) was meant to play on Thursday, now clinches the league title due to the forfeit.
Mountain View’s season is not over, as they had earned a guaranteed playoff spot before forfeiting the championship game.
