After a third high school football team forfeited their game against Everett’s Archbishop Murphy, the players are speaking out and telling their story. 
 
 “It’s a story of resilience in the face of adversity,” Coach Jerry Jensen said. “This story started three years ago when these kids were freshmen.” 
 
 Former Archbishop Murphy football coach discusses the forfeited games 
 
 The big question amid that story was whether or not the private school would remain in the Cascade Conference, with six other teams, when half of those teams refuse to play them. 
 
 “Based on what’s happened, probably not very likely,” Jensen said, noting they will ask the WIAA for help on that issue. 
 
 Archbishop Murphy’s story 
 
 What happened started three years ago, according to Jensen, when freshmen on the football team wanted to improve after a crushing season full of losses. 
 
 “They decided they wanted to change their narrative,” Jensen said. “On the offseason they went to work as a group, committed toward improving. The next season, that freshmen group, now sophomores, went through the season losing close games … still short of their ultimate goal. But they continued the hard work.” 
 
 The team was still short of heading to state the next year, losing a final game. And they went back to work in the offseason, Jensen said. 
 
 “We fast-forward to this year with 16 seniors, 13 of those seniors have been here since their freshman season,” he said. “Their goal is the same — to bring the first AA football state championship to the Archbishop community. That goal will not change. They will stay focused. They will persevere whether it be on the football field or in life.” 
 
 The team has improved. So much that so far this season, South Whidbey and Sultan forfeited their games in advance of playing Archbishop Murphy. Granite Falls became the third team to bow out this week — three days in advance of the game. Jensen said he was not expecting the third forfeit, especially so late. He said there was a meeting with other coaches three weeks ago and he specifically asked if there would be other forfeits. He was told there would be none. 
 
 The teams cited concerns over the safety of their students; that Archbishop Murphy’s players are too big. Some argue that since the school is private, it gets players from a larger pool of candidates, drawing in bigger players. 
 
 “Our kids have lost three games now — for their senior season for some of them,” the coach said. 
 
 “We took the first cancellation as a time to concentrate on our studies,” he said. “We hit the field during the second week to prepare to play this game. This week we practiced both days up until today.” 
 
 At the team’s Wednesday press conference, players said they don’t attend the private school for sporting purposes, rather, they attend for academic reasons. Some are using football as a means to obtain scholarships for college. 
 
 Coach Jensen said that he wants new rules written prohibiting teams from forfeiting three days in advance of a game — which is what happened this week. He also said “it makes a lot of sense” to him to form a new conference with other Northwest AA teams in their athletic district. 
 
 Archbishop Murphy has two more conference games, and one more non-conference game this season. “We’ll see,” Jensen said on the team’s odds of going to state. 

 GRANITE FALLS, Wash. - A third high school football team is now refusing to play Everett's Archbishop Murphy amidst concerns about player safety. 
 
 Archbishop Murphy is a private Catholic school in Everett that's been so dominant this season that South Whidbey, Sultan, and now Granite Falls High School have all opted to forfeit instead of taking the field against the Wildcats. 
 
 "The biggest concern is the recruiting aspect that private schools are able to do. They can pull from a 50-mile radius from their campus and send buses to pick the kids up," said Granite Falls Head Coach Tim Dennis. "Just the level of athletes they've been able to bring in on one team, it doesn't match up with a lot of the teams in our league." 
 
 It's an issue that's been widely discussed among athletic directors and coaches in the Cascade Conference that Archbishop Murphy is part of. In the three games Archbishop Murphy has played this season, they've outscored their opponents 170-0. 
 
 "It's not that we're afraid to play the game, it's an injury issue," said Dennis. "Because of the size disparity between the linemen. They have 300-pound linemen. And we have sophomores that are weight 210, 220 pounds and starting on varsity. So that's the issue, is the size disparity." 
 
 Granite Falls High School held a community meeting Tuesday evening in response to parent feedback and fears that their kids could get seriously hurt if they go through with Friday's game against Archbishop Murphy. 
 
 "My son is 5'8" and weighs 117 pounds and just got out of middle school and just turned 14. They've got 18-year-old players that are 6'5" and weigh 330 pounds. I mean, that's like putting a Volkswagen bug against a mack truck," said Granite Falls mom Stacey McBride. 
 
 She and many other parents on the team feel that a football game just isn't worth it. 
 
 "I've said from the very beginning that there's no way I'm going to let my son play these guys," said McBride. "He said Mom I'll get killed, why would I even put myself in that position?" 
 
 Those are the worries parents expressed to the school's principal, athletic director, and the school district superintendent. 
 
 In 2015, Granite Falls lost to Archbishop Murphy, 66-6. In 2014, they lost 56-7. 
 
 Athletic Director Joey Johnson, at first, said the decision had already been made, and the school leaders had no plans to forfeit this year's game to Archbishop Murphy. 
 
 "We made the decision to honor the commitment that we had made as a member of the Cascade Conference that we would play the game instead of forfeiting the game," said Granite Falls Athletic Director Joey Johnson. 
 
 In the end, it was the players themselves who had the final say. 
 
 They came forward in the middle of Tuesday's meeting and announced they'd decided as a team that they would not play Archbishop Murphy on Friday. 
 
 Parents in the crowd applauded their decision. One of the players explained that they chose to forfeit not because they are afraid to play Archbishop Murphy, but because the Granite Falls team is already dealing with some injuries. He said they'd rather have the chance to finish out their entire season than risk someone getting seriously hurt while playing the Archbishop team that has a bigger roster and much bigger players 
 
 Shortly after the meeting, Johnson sent an email to players, coaches, and parents confirming the official forfeit. 
 
 KING 5 reached out to Archbishop Murphy's coach and athletic director for comment, but we haven't yet heard back. 
 
 Copyright 2016 KING 

 On the football field, Archbishop Murphy High School is a powerhouse, overwhelming its first three opponents this year by a combined score of 170-0. 
 
 But winning by such margins is coming at a cost. The school is having trouble finding schools willing to play it. 
 
 info Close CBS News 
 
 Since a mid-September blowout, three teams have now canceled on Archbishop Murphy. Granite Falls High School is the latest, forfeiting its game scheduled for Friday. 
 
 “We made a decision based on the health and welfare of our kids. And that’s really what it comes to. That’s our first priority,” said Granite Falls athletic director Joey Johnson. 
 
 Archbishop Murphy isn’t just big. Some of its players are the size of college and even professional players. There are six weighing at least 250 pounds, including three over 300 pounds. 
 
 Just one Granite Falls player weighs 250 pounds. 
 
 “It’s a physical game,” Johnson said. “And our kids and parents are concerned about getting hurt, so bottom line.” 
 
 info Close CBS News 
 
 “That your Friday game has been forfeited, to me doesn’t really ring true to what we’re trying to teach our young adults here,” said Jerry Jensen, Archbishop Murphy’s head football coach. 
 
 “This is their opportunity to face adversity, power through it, and it will serve them well in their life,” Jensen said. 
 
 One reason the players at Archbishop Murphy are so big is because as a private school, it can recruit players from around the region while public schools cannot. The growing call around the league is for Archbishop Murphy to play in a higher division. 
 
 Players like lineman Jackson Yost, who is 6 feet 3 inches and 265 pounds, just want to play. 
 
 “We can’t focus on what other schools do and we just have to focus on what we need to do so we can prepare for the next upcoming game,” Yost said. 
 
 That is, if there is a next game.
– After crushing the opposition by a combined total of 170-0 in its first three games of the season, Archbishop Murphy High School in Washington state won the next three games when their opponents forfeited out of fear of literally being crushed. The Everett high school is a private Catholic institution, which, unlike the public schools it has been playing, allows it to recruit players from across the region, CBS News reports. The Archbishop Murphy team has six players over 250 pounds and three over 300, while Granite Falls High School, the latest to forfeit, has just one player over 250 pounds. The Catholic school's future in the Cascade Conference is now uncertain. "It's not that we're afraid to play the game, it's an injury issue," Granite Falls coach Tim Dennis tells KING5. "My son is 5'8" and weighs 117 pounds and just got out of middle school and just turned 14," a Granite Falls mom told a community meeting this week. "They've got 18-year-old players [who] are 6'5" and weigh 330 pounds. I mean, that's like putting a Volkswagen Bug against a Mack truck." MyNorthwest.com reports that at a press conference Wednesday, Archbishop Murphy coach Jerry Jensen described the team's story as one of "resilience in the face of adversity," which started three years ago when a group of freshmen players vowed to improve after a season of losses. (Another high school team plays in a $70 million stadium.)