Current Events > Bishop Montgomery High School fires coach, forfeits 2025 football season

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z5jJSS7MOY

Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance forfeited its entire varsity football season and parted with its head football coach, raising questions from parents and community members.

The decision to forfeit the season comes after the CIF deemed five transfer students ineligible and the school self-reported more violations.

"Past few weeks, practices were going crazy," said Robert Williams, who lives near Bishop Montgomery High School. "Every day Id walk by and watch them play and they were doing fantastic. Now its just deserted."

In a letter sent to Bishop Montgomerys Families on Tuesday, the High School Principal and President announced the varsity football program has been suspended for the 2025 season. They added that the head coach, who was also the co-athletic director, is no longer employed at the school.

"I dont know if theres any coming back from this," said Williams.

The CIFs website shows a few dozen players transferred to Bishop Montgomery this school year and LA Times Prep Columnist Eric Sondheimer says that likely sounded an alarm.

"The thing is, the warnings are when you get a bunch of transfers in, that's a warning. I don't know it's it makes perfect sense to everybody that a coach would why are these people coming here?" said Sondheimer. "Bishop Montgomery had players from all over Southern California coming to a program that wasn't a powerhouse."

Many Southern California athletes were excited about attending a school as academically prestigious as Bishop Montgomery. For some of these athletes, this was a once-in-a-lifetime educational opportunity to get one of the best educations in the area while also enjoying the added benefit of playing football at a competitive level," wrote the attorney for the now-fired head coach, Ed Hodgkiss.

But with the Varsity Season now suspended, some wonder if the students can play elsewhere.

"If I was a senior and I was looking forward to possibly going to college and getting a good scholarship and now Im not even able to play, its tough, its tough," said Williams.

The attorney for the former head coach said they will be taking legal action on his firing.

In a brief statement, the CIF said they are also now reviewing the schools self-imposed sanctions related to the football team.

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/bishop-montgomery-high-school-fires-coach-forfeits-2025-football-season/3774235/

Abolish high school football.

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It is a long read but SI did a good story on it.

https://www.si.com/high-school/california/audio-inside-bishop-montgomery-parent-admin-meeting-football-season-canceled-01k4drz39edj