Every fall when football season comes around, students and parents alike prepare for the long, exciting nights spent chanting and cheering their home team on, hoping the season extends into November. All eyes are on the football team on Friday nights as the players fight through four quarters for the win.

This season, Eaglecrest was climbing the ranks to the playoffs when the unexpected happened: Highlands Ranch High School, a team Eaglecrest beat 24-0 back in September, was caught with an illegal communication device in their quarterback’s helmet, which gave their team an unfair advantage. Their decision to cheat dropped Eaglecrest’s ranking to 33, only one spot away from making it into the playoffs.

Under the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) football by-laws, Highlands Ranch had to forfeit three of their wins, dropping their record to 0-9, and causing Eaglecrest’s win against them to have less value. It was now impossible for Eaglecrest to make the playoffs.

Eaglecrest Athletic Director Vince Orlando explained that the system CHSAA has in place is very complicated and involves many factors. Points are given based off of the rankings of the teams you play against.

“It’s very black and white, and [CHSAA] has stuck by their legislative by-laws and determined that forfeits do have to count,” Orlando said. “Points have to be recalculated every week.”

After the news was released that Highlands Ranch’s cheating had affected Eaglecrest’s standings, both Orlando and District Athletic Director Larry Bull contacted CHSAA.

“[We] made a number of calls this weekend to CHSAA, trying to get them to reconsider the change, and we fought this as much as we could,” Orlando said. “Unfortunately it didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to but we understand and have to move on.”

While Orlando and Bull were able to contact CHSAA, CHSAA deferred comment when contacted by the Eagle Quill.

Understanding why Highlands Ranch cheated is the hard part for Orlando as an Athletic Director because it is a rare occurrence he had never seen before.

“That’s the unfortunate thing. It was something that happened that obviously had some forethought. An adult mistake has cost us a chance to compete in the playoffs,” he said. “I would hope that Highlands Ranch has learned a very valuable lesson. They did the right thing by forfeiting the games, but unfortunately that affected us, and that’s the tough part to accept.”

While the team has suffered from this event, Orlando believes the players and coaches will continue to move forward as the 2015 season closes and the 2016 off-season begins.

The team finishes their season, playing against Lakewood High School on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. at JeffCo Stadium.

“Our kids are resilient, our coaches are resilient,” Orlando said. “We will hopefully be able to go out on a high note on Friday because I think we have a chance to be very, very good next year.”