A California school district just killed an entire high school football season rather than explain itself. San Benito High School District canceled the remainder of Hollister High's varsity schedule Monday, citing too few available players to safely field a team — a roster crisis that followed directly from the district's own decision to place head coach Thomas Sullivan on administrative leave and launch an investigation into the program on Sept. 10.
Superintendent Shawn Tennenbaum announced the cancellation in a letter to the community. The district had already forced Hollister to forfeit its Sept. 17 matchup just hours before kickoff. Now the rest of the season is gone too, and the district still won't say why.
This is the stake: a bureaucratic process, shielded by privacy claims, has dismantled a traditional institution for young men in a working community. Hollister was 2-0 when the district intervened. Now dozens of players have no season, no Friday nights, and no answers.
Tennenbaum's letter offered the longest public statement the district has made since the investigation began — and it said almost nothing. "Because the matter involves students and remains under review, the District is limited in the information it can provide," Tennenbaum wrote, according to SFGATE. "Protecting student privacy and maintaining the integrity of the review are important considerations, and the District will not comment on individual students, confidential matters, or unverified information."
The district asked the community to "respect the privacy of the students and families involved and to allow the District's review to proceed appropriately." Additional information will come, Tennenbaum wrote, "if and when it can be shared consistent with student privacy and applicable requirements."
That is a bureaucracy protecting itself, not the public. Former head coach Chris Cameron stepped in on an interim basis after Sullivan's leave began, coaching the team's next game on Sept. 11. But by Sept. 17, the program was forfeiting games. By Sept. 22, the season was dead.
The SFGATE report noted that opponents scheduled to play Hollister cannot replace the forfeited games with nonconference opponents, meaning the investigation's collateral damage extends to other schools and their players too.
The district has not said what prompted the investigation, what it is investigating, or when it might conclude. Meanwhile, every player on the Hollister roster — and every opponent on their schedule — pays the price for a process that answers to no one.
What did Coach Sullivan do? What happened in that program? The public doesn't get to know. But the public does get to absorb the consequences: another American institution for young men, hollowed out by administrative fiat, with no accountability and no end in sight.
