The Bandidos football team allowed into playoffs

UPDATE: Monday night the Las Cruces Parks and Recreation board voted 4-1 for the Bandidos team to be allowed into the playoffs.

The playoffs normally consist of four teams, but the Bandidos will rank fifth.

The board also voted for the head coach to be suspended for one year, the Las Cruces Nerf League to be on probation for one year and the mother of the ineligible player be suspended from the league for one year.

ORIGINAL STORY: Parents are protesting after a local youth football team had its wins stripped due to an ineligible player.

The Bandidos are made up of fourth and fifth graders. They were having an undefeated season and were 6-0 when Candace Avalos, coordinator of the Las Cruces Nerf League, says she got word a sixth grader was on the team.

Avalos says parents can register their children online, but they also have to verify their child’s grade level in person, with a report card. She says the league does not use birth certificates to verify their age.

“There was never any grade verification given when the parents took him. When he came to Dick’s Sporting Good and showed me a picture on his phone, he was told that would not be accepted and return with the correct information,” Avalos said.

Somehow, the player still ended up on the team. Avalos says the league doesn’t place children on teams, the coach does. The team’s head coach is now suspended for a year and the players, looking forward to the playoffs, are no longer eligible.

“I’ve never been upset about losing, winning nothing like that,” said Trista Lopez, who’s 5th grade child is on the team. “When I found this out, I was angry. I called the coach and I was crying. I thought it was so unfair to my son. As a parent, this was something I couldn’t control and I was unaware of.”

ABC-7 reached out to the mother of the ineligible player. Over the phone, Martha Covarrubias said she knowingly put her child in the wrong grade level, but did so for his safety. Covarrubias said she also wants to help her son avoid him being bullied because he has intellectual disabilities and is in special education.

“I did it for my child’s best interest,” Covarrubias said.