Archbishop Murphy addresses forfeited games

The North Sound school so dominant in football that teams in their conference refuse to play them—broke their silence Wednesday.

Archbishop Murphy High School in Everett outscored its opponents 170-0 in its first three games this year.

The team never got to play their next three games because every team forfeited.

The latest forfeit comes ahead of a game scheduled for Friday against Granite Falls.

Wednesday, players and school officials with Archbishop Murphy held a news conference to address the forfeits.

The Granite Falls forfeit — according to the Archbishop Murphy athletic director — came as a surprise.

AD Jerry Jensen said his players just want to be on the field and have suffered their fair share of losses, as well, when the school transitioned from 1A to 2A despite its size.

Still, Wednesday the Granite Falls High School football field is empty; there’s no practice two days before what’s supposed to be game day. But the parents and players say it’s better not to play this week than never to play again.

“You teach your kids what’s reasonable and what’s not.

We can’t put our 5 foot 8 (inch), 125-pound quarterback up against their nose tackle who happens to be 6 feet 5 inches and over 330 pounds. He’s going to put that kid in the hospital,” said Stacey Morris.

Stacey Morris’s son is a 14-year-old, 117-pound safety.

He’s not always on the field, but Stacey says if Granite Falls faced Archbishop Murphy on Friday—he, he very well could be.

“The issue is if these kids get taken out who are they going to replace them with?

The younger kids, the freshmen and sophomores who don’t have the experience, nor do they have the growth or size or maturity to play against these guys who are vetted for Division 1 colleges; I can’t put a 14-year-old up against that,” Stacey explained.

After a tense meeting of parents, players, and district officials Tuesday, ultimately the school agreed— but not initially.“When you belong to a league, you make a commitment to play the other members of that league, and so going into that we had hoped we’d be able to play them,” explained Granite Falls Athletic Director Joey Johnson.

Johnson says Granite Falls has never beaten Archbishop Murphy but has always played them.

“They’re a powerful program and we’re not.

We’re getting better.

We’re better than we were last year and we’ve got a long way to go,” said Johnson. But they won’t be going to Archbishop Murphy.

“The hardest part now is everyone is saying you’re teaching your kids to be quitters, and that’s really not the case.

You’re teaching your kids what’s an acceptable risk,” concluded Stacey.

Cox Media Group