The Narbonne football program has to forfeit the 2024 City Open Division championship and is banned from competing in the postseason for three seasons due to violations of CIF eligibility rules, the L.A. City Section announced Wednesday.
In a statement, the City Section said that “a thorough investigation by the LAUSD and the CIF LA City Section” found that Narbonne “violated CIF bylaw 202 (Accurate information) and CIF bylaw 510 (Undue influence, pre-enrollment contact) during the 2024 football season.”
After the 2025-26 school year, Narbonne may appeal the remainder of the football playoff ban.
Narbonne’s entire athletic program was placed on probation for the remainder of this school year and the following three school years (2025-26, 2026-27 and 2027-28).
The ruling comes after a season that saw Narbonne’s four Marine League opponents refuse to play their games against the Gauchos. The coaches for Banning (Raymond Grajeda), Gardena (Monty Gilbreath), Carson (Michael Christensen) and San Pedro (Corey Walsh) stood in solidarity by signing a letter stating their concerns regarding Narbonne and possible rule violations.
The letter led to an investigation and the first result was seven players being ruled ineligible for the postseason. Since that ruling came out after the playoff pairings were released, Narbonne was able to compete in the City Section playoffs, and the Gauchos went on to win the Open Division title.
Narbonne’s 2024 regular season consisted of six nonleague games and four league games. The league games went into the books as forfeit wins.
Narbonne also played four playoff games (three in the City Section playoffs and a CIF SoCal Regional game).
The Gauchos finished with a 7-7 record, although now all of the wins are forfeit losses.
Narbonne defeated Dorsey (47-13), Birmingham (27-7) and San Pedro (75-31) in the Open Division playoffs. The Gauchos lost to Pacifica Oxnard 37-20 in the Division 2AA Regional final.
Since the end of the football season, coach Malcolm Manuel has stepped down is now the head coach at Cabrillo High in Long Beach. Star quarterback Jaden O’Neal has moved to Oklahoma and other players have departed to new locations.
Doug Bledsoe, who has coached in the past at Dorsey, University, North Hollywood and Pasadena, was hired as Narbonne’s new coach in February.
In 2019, the Narbonne football program was investigated for various rule violations. That led to the Gauchos serving a two-year postseason ban due to academic misconduct. The Gauchos had to forfeit their 2018 City Open Division championship and seven games. The Gauchos were found to have used ineligible players, by violating bylaws 202 and 206 (residential eligibility.).
The athletic department was placed on probation through the 2022-23 school year.
That investigation led to football coach Manuel Douglas being reassigned and Joe Aguirre took over as interim coach. Manuel was then hired to lead the football program in July of 2020.
In the fall, the girls volleyball team had to forfeit 14 matches due to using an ineligible player.
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