Bellarmine's football team spent the fall clawing its way back from irrelevance, clinching a Central Coast Section playoff berth under first-year coach Tom Williams. Then the Central Coast Section wiped all six of those wins off the books Monday, ruling that the San Jose school had used an ineligible player and dropping the Bells to 0-9 overall and 0-6 in the West Catholic Athletic League, with no postseason to show for it.
The decision, first reported by the Mercury News and detailed by the San Francisco Chronicle, converts a team that entered the week seeded sixth in the Division 1 playoff standings with a 6-3 overall record and 3-3 mark in league play into a winless squad overnight. According to the Chronicle, Bellarmine received notice of a CIF Central Coast Section bylaw violation tied to a transfer student's athletic eligibility, and the CCS commissioner outlined the ineligibility finding along with the retroactive forfeiture of every game in which that student played. As the Mercury News reported, the ruling drops the Bells out of the CCS playoffs entirely.
The erased victories were the backbone of a surprising turnaround: wins over Sobrato-Morgan Hill (37-6), Campolindo-Moraga (17-16), Palo Alto (38-18), Mitty (10-7), Valley Christian (7-0) and Sacred Heart Cathedral (24-20), per the Chronicle's reporting. Those results will now benefit the teams Bellarmine beat — Sacred Heart Cathedral, Valley Christian, Mitty and Palo Alto are each positioned to receive a more favorable playoff seed if the forfeits stand, the Chronicle noted.
Principal Disputes Severity, Not the Violation Itself
Bellarmine principal Rod Jemison said the school does not dispute that a violation occurred but pushed back on the scale of the punishment and what it does to the team, according to the Chronicle. The school has acknowledged its responsibility to comply with CIF and CCS regulations and said it needs to address gaps in its oversight, the paper reported.
Bellarmine cannot appeal the ruling through the CCS itself, per the Chronicle, but the school says it plans to pursue legal avenues to try to overturn the forfeits. In the meantime, the football team and coaching staff are preparing for Saturday's game against Riordan with the backing of school administration, the Chronicle reported. That game is scheduled for November 7.
A Turnaround Season Undone
The forfeits are especially jarring given where this Bellarmine team started the year. The Bells went a combined 4-26 over the three seasons before 2026 and hadn't won a WCAL game in the two seasons prior, according to the Mercury News. Under Williams — a first-year coach who previously served as an assistant at St. Francis and Stanford and as head coach at Yale — Bellarmine opened the season 3-0 after a 38-18 win over Palo Alto in September, the outlet reported.
That momentum didn't last through the league schedule. Saint Francis beat Bellarmine 28-20 on October 23, according to standings published by wcalsports.org, which listed Bellarmine at 5-3 overall and 2-3 in WCAL play as of October 24. The program has won eight CCS titles historically and last claimed a WCAL title in 2015, with longtime coach Mike Janda winning 284 games during his tenure from 1984 to 2019, per the Chronicle's reporting. Bellarmine last reached the CCS playoffs in 2022, the same season it beat Menlo-Atherton 30-7.
Not the Only Program Facing Scrutiny
Bellarmine isn't the only WCAL program under the microscope this week. The CCS is also investigating the eligibility of a Serra player, though the Mercury News reports the Padres will not be required to forfeit any games as a result.
Forfeitures tied to eligibility violations have become a recurring headache across California high school football this fall. In Southern California, Yorba Linda was forced to forfeit its first four wins of the season, turning a 4-1 start into an 0-5 record, after CIF-Southern Section found administrative failures in submitting transfer paperwork and improper pre-enrollment contact with student-athletes, according to USA Today. A CIF spokesperson said the findings supported the district's conclusion that institutional failures had occurred in oversight of the athletic department and coaching staff, the outlet reported.
Bakersfield's Foothill High School went through a similar ordeal, forfeiting all seven of its wins after the CIF deemed two players ineligible, according to turnto23.com. Athletic Director Mike Biezard told the station the players had initially been cleared by the CIF before the school received a letter reversing that determination. In an older and more severe CCS case, Junipero Serra's varsity team was barred from the CCS playoffs for both the 2015 and 2016 seasons after withdrawing from a 2014 consolation championship game, according to calhisports.com, which also reported that the school was ordered to pay restitution, including nearly $2,000 to Milpitas High School for event expenses and $2,000 in lost concessions revenue.
