GUADALUPE, Calif.- One player's birthday puts a local youth football team on the sidelines days before the big Superbowl game.
Under the rules and regulations of the Central Coast Youth Football League, it clearly states a player who will become 11-years-old before December 1st, shall not play in the Bantam Division. After the board made a mistake on one player's application, it cost the entire team the game.
Julian Caseres will never get be able to wear his helmet again after he and the rest of the Guadalupe Youth Bulldogs found out they were disqualified from playing in the Superbowl game, all because of a rule in a book that was never caught.
"It wasn't just like we were trying to sneak somebody in and say hey were going to see if they catch it, you know, our board overlooked it, the main board overlooked it, so it was an honest mistake," says parent, Gary Casares.
The Bulldogs played all season and it wasn't until last week, after the team beat the Arroyo Grande Eagles in the playoffs, that anyone had an issue with the team. The Eagles went to the League Board and complained that one of Guadalupe players was too old to play.
"They held a private board meeting and what happened was they were overlooking our binders to try and find something, some kind of discrepancy, some type of technicality anything they could to find a win," says Casares.
Lisa Parra says the board knew when her son's birthday was.
"I turned in his application with his birth certificate his physical, everything was okay," says parent, Lisa Parra.
League President Vic Kunze said rules are rules and released this brief statement saying, "rules were violated, and penalties enforced."
"Now its not even about the kids anymore its about politics and just let them play," says Casares.
