Oklahoma officials won’t allow replay of final minute

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY

It was the final minute of the state quarterfinal when Douglass High School appeared to score the winning touchdown on a fourth-down play.

But the jubilation was short-lived as players watched the score get wiped out when officials improperly enforced a penalty. Tiny Locust Grove won 20-19, and now everyone from state lawmakers to legendary former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer called for an extraordinary remedy: replaying the final minute of the game, from the point of the touchdown.

The fate of both teams, for now, was decided Wednesday in a board room where athletic officials reviewed the case, which pitted a powerhouse Oklahoma City athletic program against a small town of 1,400 and touches on issues of race and class. The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association voted 8-3 against Douglass after confronting the difficulty of righting a wrong in a high-stakes sporting events, even when almost everybody agrees that major mistakes were made.

Douglass isn’t done fighting. Brandon Carey, general counsel for Oklahoma City Public Schools, said the district would most likely file an injunction in Oklahoma County District Court on Thursday to stop the certification of the results and the playing of Locust Grove’s semifinal game against Heritage Hall, scheduled for Friday.

Adding to the controversy was the nature of the penalty — an infraction involving a coach and a ball boy running down the sideline that did not involve any of the players on the field.

The story began last Friday when Douglass took the lead with 1:04 remaining in the Class 3A playoff game. A flag was thrown, but the penalty was improperly enforced, taking the potential game-winning touchdown off the board.

The penalty, the second sideline infraction against the Trojans, should have been enforced on the extra point or the kickoff instead of wiping out the long touchdown pass and marking off the penalty yardage from the previous spot.

The activities association punished the officials involved, calling the error “inexcusable at this level” and acknowledging that the results were “extremely unfortunate for the players, coaches, and fans involved.”

The mistake was “compounded by the fact that it occurred in a playoff-elimination game,” Mike Whaley, the agency’s director of officials, said in a news release.

The crew will be reprimanded and has been removed from consideration for further playoff games.

But the activities association rejected Douglass’ initial request to replay the last part of the game because it does not allow protests based on decisions made by officials. Wednesday’s special meeting upheld that ruling.