After the SCHS Bruins lost to Palo Alto three weeks ago, the team discovered that they would be giving up more than just that game.

According to CCS rules, the Bruins must forfeit their wins this season, because a player on the team was found to be living outside the area that would allow him to go to SCHS.

Though the loss of every game was disappointing, players say they have not lost belief in themselves or their team.

“Our team gave it our all, even if it doesn’t show on paper. I know we tried our best and we did well this year,” said outside linebacker and cornerback Tony Glanders.

After having to forfeit their wins, the team will take on new precautions to prevent any future issues with student living situations.

“We will educate our kids on how to communicate: if they move away, they need to let us know,” said head coach Hank Roberts.

According to CCS rules, student athletes cannot play for a school if they do not live in the school’s area zone. The rule does not, however, affect the team the following season.

Some students, such as tackle Malik Washington, disagree with this rule. “If you want to go to a certain school, you should be able to,” Washington said.

“I cannot check each kid’s living situations. Therefore I do not think it’s right that we have to lose all our games,” said head coach Hank Roberts, who preferred not to release the student’s name.The player, a senior, had lived in the district during his freshman year, but moved away during sophomore year.

According to CCS, the rule is in place to stop schools from unfairly recruiting players in order to boost their football teams’ scores.

Technically, SCHS had to forfeit all the games that the outside player had played in. Their record before was 2-0-4. Because of the illegal player, the record became 0-0-6.

The team and the coach, however, said that they have chosen to leave the incident behind them and keep moving forward.

“This issue is dead to me now. I’m on to next year and making sure we never have to vacate wins again,” Roberts said.