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Officials from Berkeley High and De Anza High will meet today to sort out the ramifications of Friday’s cancelled football game between the two schools. 

Friday’s game was cancelled when no officials showed up for the 7 p.m. varsity kickoff. According to a source close to the situation, Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League officials botched the scheduling of officials. De Anza then compounded the problem by not checking with the league before the game, as is customary. 

One possible outcome is for the game to be made up on Nov. 16. But in order for that to happen, the North Coast Section first round of playoffs, scheduled for that weekend, must be postponed. The Fremont Athletic League has already requested that the playoffs be moved back due to the cancellation of games after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The FAL cancelled all games that weekend, although most other games in Northern California went ahead as planned. Berkeley High, for instance, played James Logan High on Sept. 14. 

“(The request) does create some challenges trying to re-schedule the whole playoffs,” NCS commissioner Tom Ehrhorn said. “All of that stuff the board has to consider. Our job is to make it work no matter what.” 

Moving the playoffs back would also mean moving the date of the championship games from Nov. 30 or Dec. 1 to Dec. 7 or 8. That would take football, a fall sport, even further into the winter sports schedule, a serious inconvenience for student-athletes who play both football and a winter sport. 

Berkeley High does have its league bye week coming up on Oct. 19, but head coach Matt Bissell scheduled a non-league matchup with Emery for that day before the season started. In addition, De Anza already has a league game scheduled for that day. Berkeley’s last regular season game is against Pinole Valley on Nov. 8, leaving no open date before the NCS playoffs are scheduled to begin. 

“I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Bissell said Wednesday. “No determination has been made what will happen if the game isn’t made up, and unless the NCS pushes the playoffs back, I don’t see how that will happen.” 

If the game isn’t made up, it is possible the game will be ruled a forfeit in Berkeley’s favor, since De Anza was the home team and didn’t check with the league about officials. But that would be punishing De Anza for what is essentially a league office mistake.