Rosamond High Coach Resigns Over Video Flap

Lon Boyett, the Rosamond High School football coach whose team was thrown out of the Southern Section playoffs after giving its opponent altered videotape, resigned, school officials said Monday.

Principal Richard Stockton said Boyett also resigned as the school’s basketball coach. Athletic Director James Johnson said interim coach Tim Atkerson would run the team until a full-time coach could be hired. Boyett and his staff resigned Sunday.

Contacted by telephone, Boyett said, “I don’t want to talk,” and hung up.

Rosamond was removed from the playoffs last Friday, the day before it was scheduled to play Orange Lutheran for the Division X title. The videotape given to the Orange Lutheran coaches had 13 seconds of blank spots, which turned out to be Rosamond passing and scoring plays.

Rosamond had given doctored videotape to its other playoff opponents--Cathedral, Serrano and Cerritos Valley Christian--as well. One of Boyett’s assistants, Dan Steen, admitted during a Southern Section hearing last week that game videotape had been altered or edited “a dozen times.”

Orange Lutheran will play Valley Christian for the Division X championship on Saturday at Orange Coast College. Valley Christian had lost to Rosamond in the semifinals, 45-10.