Former Archbishop Murphy coach calls forfeits ‘unfortunate’

One after another, teams are dropping in the shadow of the Archbishop Murphy High School football team. But not under the scoreboard, rather, they are forfeiting their games before they happen.

“I actually attended their first game,” Tom Tangney told KIRO Radio co-host John Curley. “They are a 2A school. They played a 4A school in Issaquah and at half time the score was 73 to nothing. So they decided that there was no more scoring. They are obliterating teams. Then they beat my alma mater Bishop Blanchet by like 59 to nothing. This team just rolls over anybody and everybody and they’re playing bigger and more powerful schools.”

Archbishop Murphy is in the Cascade Conference with only six other teams, but as the Everett Herald notes they are a private school and draw players from a much larger pool of students. That adds to considerable talent to its teams.

So far this season, two teams have thrown in the towel prior to the game — South Whidbey and Sultan. South Whidbey cited “a shortage of players and a decided disadvantage in physical talent,” according to the Herald. Sultan cited similar reasons.

Archbishop Murphy

According to former Archbishop Murphy football coach Bill Marsh, the issue isn’t so much the talented team. Rather, it has more to do with communication between the coaches.

“It’s unfortunate for Archbishop Murphy, too,” Marsh said. “They don’t want to play a three-game season. They want to play games as well. Their kids have worked hard. It’s really nobody’s fault. It’s just communication.”

“It’s a little demoralizing because you know you don’t get a game,” he said. “It’s not like baseball or basketball where you get 200 games. You get a 10-game season. When you take 10 percent of a kid’s season away from them when they’ve worked so hard — that part is a bummer. At the same time, as an adult, you’re the number one priority is that they are safe.”

Marsh notes that coaches have to communicate ahead of time. He said there are certain “unwritten rules” that coaches go by. For example, if such a team hits 28 points in the first quarter, then the coach could agree to take their starters off the field and use their second string.

“If we know it’s going to be a mismatch, we’ll simply say ‘what are things both sides can do to ensure there is safety?'” he said. “How do we make sure all our players get in and it’s a safe? Otherwise, it’s a lose-lose situation for everybody and no one wants that.”

Marsh said that some teams may be concerned with safety, though, there may be some strategic forfeiting that happens as well.

“(Bishop Murphy) just happens to have a very, very good football team right now,”Murphy said, noting that Sultan — one of the forfeiting teams — is also really good this season.

“But they don’t want to lose their kids,” he said. “They only have a three or four really good kids that are allowing them to have this good season. If they lose those kids, it does risk them not going to the playoffs down the road. And that is what some of these teams are fearful of.”

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