The Field Report

Two stories this week land on the same nerve: paperwork somebody assumed was fine. A stack of coach CPR cards that turned out not to exist in the issuer's database. A three-time state champion stripped of her title over an eligibility issue her family says was preventable. Neither started as a scandal. Both ended as one. — Todd Herion, HuddleBoard Sports

• COACH COMPLIANCE

  A California high school pulled coaches off campus over CPR cards that weren't real

  El Camino Real in Woodland Hills, California, placed multiple teachers and coaches on administrative leave after a third-party investigation found their CPR and first-aid certification cards did not appear in the Red Cross database — even though the school's athletic director had approved them last year. The coaches had taken an online course that other schools have used. Parents confirmed several coaches were escorted off campus, including the head baseball coach.

  Takeaway

  Most ADs collect a card, check the expiration date, and file it. At a lot of schools that is the verification step, and it holds up right until someone checks the issuing body's registry. HuddleBoard Sports keeps coach certifications inside the onboarding approval gates, so a missing or expired card blocks team access instead of sitting in a folder — but confirming a card is genuine is still a human job.

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• ELIGIBILITY RULES

  New Jersey vacated a three-time state champion's title over an eligibility violation

  The NJSIAA has stripped the nation's top-ranked 152-pound girls' wrestler of her 2026 state championship. The association confirmed a rules violation but has not said which rule; its results page now carries an asterisk reading "State title revoked due to a violation of NJSIAA rules." Her father told NJ.com the family was notified in the spring and found no way to appeal: "It wasn't her fault. It's more of something we could have prevented."

  Takeaway

  "Something we could have prevented" is the line worth sitting with. Eligibility problems rarely announce themselves — they surface months later, after the season, when nothing can be undone. New Jersey's rules apply to New Jersey, but the pattern doesn't. HuddleBoard Sports recalculates eligibility as grades, physicals, and forms change, so the record is current instead of reconstructed after the fact.

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• DATA PRIVACY

  Free federal cybersecurity guides landed — and your vendor list is the weak spot

  The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released two free K-12 guides on Aug. 12: one on building a basic cybersecurity program, one on sustaining it. CISA notes schools disclosed more than 1,300 cyber incidents between 2018 and 2021, and that attackers increasingly get in through third-party vendors rather than the district's own network. Comparitech counted 34 ransomware attacks on U.S. schools and colleges in the first half of 2026.

  Takeaway

  Athletics is a soft edge here. Rosters, physicals, emergency contacts, and parent payment records usually sit with registration and scheduling vendors nobody in IT ever vetted. One question for your district tech lead this week: is athletics on the vendor inventory? If the answer is no, that's your gap, and it's a cheap one to close.

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• PROGRAM BENCHMARKS

  Not one athletic director surveyed said they have enough officials

  Athletic Business polled hundreds of readers for its 50th-anniversary State of the Industry survey. Among high school respondents, zero reported a surplus of officials in their area, 30% had canceled games because of referee shortages, and 65% reported poor sportsmanship from athletes and fans in the past year. Participation held steadier than the headlines suggest, and 90% said their athletes aren't doing NIL deals at all.

  Takeaway

  Two useful things here. If you're rescheduling around a thin officials pool, that's the norm now, not a sign your program is failing — and it's a real number to put in front of your principal when you ask for help. And if NIL is eating your board meetings, the data says it's still a rounding error at most schools.

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