If State Assemblyman Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, has anything to say about it, the upcoming Central Coast Section Division II championship football game between St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral will be played in the City.
That outcome, which is far from a certainty, gained steam on Saturday when SHC beat Santa Teresa 63-27 to reach the D-II title game. Earlier in the week, CCS commissioner Dave Grissom indicated to SFGate that the section was planning to hold the game at San Jose City College, its most commonly used host site for section football championships.
Haney released a statement Saturday afternoon advocating for the game to be played in San Francisco, saying in part: “The championship football game between Sacred Heart Cathedral and St. Ignatius, our city’s oldest sports rivalry, belongs in San Francisco, not over an hour away in San Jose.”
He noted that when the teams played at then-AT&T Park (now Oracle) in 2011, the game drew over 12,000 spectators.
“When these teams last met for a section title, it wasn’t just a game,” Haney said. “It was a city moment.”
The CCS has not officially designated a host site for the game as of late Saturday afternoon.
“The rivalry between these two incredible schools brings families and alumni together, energizes our neighborhoods and fills local businesses with life,” Haney said. “It’s good for our students, good for our community, and good for San Francisco. And it should be accessible to the families who make this moment possible, many of whom can’t just drop everything and make a long trip to another city.”
When reached by the Bay Area News Group on Saturday afternoon, Grissom replied in a text that he was not available to comment.
“This is a rare and special matchup, and an entirely solvable scheduling and logistics issue shouldn’t send a signature San Francisco moment out of our city,” Haney said. “I’ve reached out to both schools and the Central Coast Section, and I’m pushing for a solution to hold the game in San Francisco. This is fixable. Let’s keep the game where the heart of this rivalry lives, right here in San Francisco.”