Columnist Spencer Patterson: Forfeits abound in local high school sports

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Sept. 7, 2001 | 9:35 a.m.

Spencer Patterson covers high school sports for the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4085 or at spencer@lasvegassun.com.

All games 7 p.m. unless noted

Basic at Cimarron-Memorial

Chaparral at Cheyenne

Centennial at Foothill

Green Valley at Mojave

Silverado at Palo Verde

Desert Pines at Bonanza

Eldorado at Bishop Gorman

Las Vegas at Clark

Rancho at Durango

Valley at Western

Sierra Vista at Coronado

Boulder City at Palo Verde (Calif.), 7:30 p.m.

The Meadows at Pahrump Valley

Indian Springs at Faith Lutheran

We're just one week into the fall season, and already the forfeits have begun stacking up.

In golf, tennis, cross country and even soccer, several area squads have had to forfeit games, matches and meets due to lack of participants.

And while such cancellations are nothing new in Southern Nevada, the rate has been unusually high thus far in 2001.

"We're really struggling getting some programs going this year," Clark County athletic director Larry McKay said. "I think there's a two-fold reason for that. One is the lateness that we started school, and the other is the opening of two new high schools, which depletes some of the programs at the current schools."

Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association rules mandate that students must participate in 10 official practices before taking part in competition. Because classes didn't start until last Thursday, some teams had trouble filling out starting rosters with players who had already met that requirement with summer practices.

That's what happened to Mojave's boys soccer team, which forfeited to Bonanza and Clark on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"They had less than a week before they played, so they didn't have the practice time," McKay said. "Especially with JV and B (freshman) programs, we've had to cancel matches because coaches were still trying to recruit kids to play when school started."

Several schools, including Western, Clark, Rancho, Valley, Las Vegas and Eldorado, have been forced to forfeit varsity girls golf matches. Mojave cancelled its girls tennis program due to lack of interested athletes. And on Wednesday, neither Las Vegas nor Bishop Gorman had the requisite five runners to post a boys cross country team score.

First-year school Sierra Vista has also had difficulty finding soccer players, and will likely fold its varsity program in the coming weeks, according to McKay. Without enough football players to field a JV squad, the Mountain Lions have also opted to go with only varsity and B teams.

"I like Coach Schlossnagle and what he's doing with the program," Schnurstein said. "He's already made great changes. I'm excited to play for him."

Schnurstein, a second baseman for the Wolves, batted .476 with seven homers, 17 doubles and 47 RBIs last season. He was one of five area players invited to participate in this year's Area Code Games over the summer.

"In all my years of coaching high school baseball, he's probably the best pure hitter I've ever coached," Basic coach Mike Kazek said.

Verbal commitments are non-biding. Nov. 7 is the first day athletes can sign letters of intent.