LHSAA upholds Helen Cox, Higgins football forfeits

Two Westbank schools will start the football season 0-1.

The LHSAA upheld their ruling that Helen Cox and L.W. Higgins must forfeit their opening week regular season games as fallout from the benches-clearing fight on the field during last week’s Westbank Optimist Jamboree.

The incident violated Rule 5.11.7 in the LHSAA handbook. After reading the officials’ report and watching clips of the incident, the LHSAA concurs with the officials that all players did exit their sideline boxes onto the field, violating Rule 5.11.8.

Helen Cox was scheduled to face East Jefferson at Hoss Memtsas Stadium on Thursday evening and Higgins was scheduled to host Holy Cross on Friday night, also at Hoss Memtsas. Instead, East Jeff and Holy Cross are credited with 2-0 victories.

The jamboree game between Cox and Higgins last Friday was suspended when both teams left their benches in a brawl on the field at Memtsas.