I guess OC Register really has it out for MD

Why would a newspaper arbitrarily “have it out” for a particular high school?…………….Luca

“Colossus“? “Goliath”? “Crusade“?

We’re talking about a high school football program. You think that a newspaper would care that much about a football program? That they would “love nothing more“ than to focus on a randomly chosen high school to expend their energy? Because they have nothing more important to spend their time on?

Demonizing their detractors is probably the most common way that people try to deflect and delegitimize criticism…………..Luca

I agree. But I wouldn't say the school or any official representative of the school is doing this. Doing so would be bad optics, wreaks of desperation, and would add fuel to the fire. MD will eventually have their day to address everything to the public (assuming it is not a sealed settlement). In the meantime while the school remains silent, it is just the diehard homers, for which I myself am guilty sometimes, that are 'demonizing' the detractors in forums such as this. 

Mater Dei is not a randomly chosen HS.  It's one of the top 5 football programs in the USA-and probably the best athletics program overall.  The school is also a dominant cultural influence in OC. To some it's gotten too big for it's britches-and if you've spent any time in the media business (I have spent 30+ years on the business side) scandal and sensationalism sell newspapers.

A disclaimer-my daughter went to another TL HS-but if the logistics would have worked she probably would have went to MD.  Had to bust her butt to be the last person on the bench on her HS varsity BB team.

If I were part of an industry I knew was dying, like Reid, Fryer, Sondheimer, Plashke and Whicker, I can't say that I might not do the same thing. But I hope I'd remember there's still such a thing as common human decency, and that's been repeatedly violated in this case.  Just two of many examples:

First, Mater Dei has a Thanksgiving Day tradition of a morning practice, the introduction and comments of dozens of past players from as long as 60 years ago who show up for that practice, and then retreating to the Grotto and gathering around the statue of the Virgin Mary for prayer. It was during that prayer ceremony that Scott Reid shoved a microphone in Coach Rollinson's face and asked him to comment on this affair.

Second, moments after winning the state championship game at Saddleback College, when the players were happily celebrating their victory after receiving the championship trophy, another reporter shoved a microphone in the faces of the Mater Dei captains and asked them to comment on the same issue.

Journalism is an honorable profession, or at least it used to be. The conduct of the five reporters who have "reported" and editorialized on this case has been neither honorable nor professional. In fact, the worst paparazzi might be ashamed of some of the things they have done, many of which haven't seen the light of day yet.