Football playoffs to begin despite court complaint

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The Rhode Island Interscholastic League’s Division III football playoffs will kick-off Friday despite uncertainty due to a complaint from the Bristol-Warren School District.

A judge denied a temporary restraining order requested by the district to hold up their scheduled playoff game, after they were unhappy with their playoff seeding.

The district said the league made an error under the new ratings percentage index to rank teams based on their record and strength of schedule.

The district argued that Mt. Hope High School was not properly awarded points for an out-of-state game in Connecticut.

The school’s head coach said he reached out to league officials for a clarification earlier in the season and was told the ranking would be corrected, but it wasn’t.

The judge said the complaint was speculative and since its the first time the state is using the system he believes there was a failure with the rollout.

He added that it’s “important the high school football teams play.”

Coach Shane Parker added that he tried to guide his players through the surrounding controversy before their game.

“Everyone tries to tell them, ‘You can’t pay attention to distractions,’ I told them that’s not true you just have to fight through them, because that’s what being an adult is,” he said. “You’re always going to have some sort of distraction, unfortunately, and you’ve got to push through it. And they’ve been incredibly focused all week.”