State Championship Stripped: Recruiting Hurricane Victims

[kepdawg]

La. title stripped over Katrina recruits
Posted 8/30/2006 12:06 AM ET
By Andy Gardiner and Chris Lawlor, USA TODAY
A Louisiana high school is fighting to retain its first football championship in 78 years, a title the state's athletic governing body has taken away for what it ruled was illegal recruiting of players displaced last year by Hurricane Katrina.

Bastrop High completed a 14-0 season to win Class 4A, helped in part by the arrival of five players from Port Sulphur, which was ravaged by Katrina. Two of those players — senior Randall Mackey and junior Jamal Recasner — are still in school and have been declared ineligible to participate in any sport this season by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.

The LHSAA delivered its punishment this week because assistant coaches physically brought the players to Bastrop instead of the players arriving under their own power. During a preliminary investigation near the end of last season, the five players said they did arrive at Bastrop independently, allegedly at the urging of a former assistant coach.

"The main thing I'm concerned with is these two young men who are trying to put the pieces of their lives back together," says Richard Hartley, the Morehouse Parish superintendent of schools. "I don't want them to suffer because some adult had them write something that wasn't true. We didn't know it was false until recently."

Hartley says the board will appeal to the LHSAA's executive committee. A hearing could come next week.

The link between the two high schools is D'Carlos Holmes, a former Port Sulphur assistant who joined the Bastrop staff weeks before Katrina.

Port Sulphur is on the Gulf while Bastro is near the Arkansas border.

"These kids were in shelters and contacted (Holmes)," Hartley says. "He may have been the only person they knew who was above water at that point. I know our coaches did not think they were doing anything illegal."

The LHSAA enacted special rules last September to accommodate athletes affected by Katrina that made it easier to transfer. But despite the storm, the LHSAA kept its restrictions on recruiting other schools' athletes intact.

Among additional penalties handed down are a $14,000 fine, the sanctioning of Holmes, who can coach at practice but cannot participate in games, and a one-year administrative probation for the school.

LHSAA commissioner Tommy Henry says that in an appeal state investigators will present their findings in an open session. "The (committee's) decision will be final," Henry says.

More than 350 people, including two state representatives, attended a town meeting Tuesday night to protest the ruling. Said principal Tom Thrower, "Every card we have we're going to play.'

***

Contributing:Monroe (La.) News-Star

[sahen]

the private schools in Louisiana play against the public schools and the private schools can recruit so whats the big deal....must've pissed the right private school (evangel maybe?) off that they didnt win their umpteenth championship in a row and found a loophole or something....sucks to have the playing field leveled....

[AggieJohn]

Originally posted by sahen
the private schools in Louisiana play against the public schools and the private schools can recruit so whats the big deal....must've pissed the right private school (evangel maybe?) off that they didnt win their umpteenth championship in a row and found a loophole or something....sucks to have the playing field leveled.... exactly, get em shane

[Manck]

It's not like a Louisiana state championship is worth anything anyways.

[Phantom Stang]

It sounds like the Louisiana officials, have adopted the Barney Fife method of interpreting rules.:rolleyes:

[PPHSfan]

Originally posted by sahen
the private schools in Louisiana play against the public schools and the private schools can recruit so whats the big deal....must've pissed the right private school (evangel maybe?) off that they didnt win their umpteenth championship in a row and found a loophole or something....sucks to have the playing field leveled....

that would make sense if you knew what you were talking about. Evangel won again last year. these kids were scattered all over the state in shelters. the lhsaa told them they could play wherever they could find a school. then after they won a title, the same lhsaa took it away. i think you need to do some research before you just start slinging mud.

[sahen]

Originally posted by PPHSfan
that would make sense if you knew what you were talking about. Evangel won again last year. these kids were scattered all over the state in shelters. the lhsaa told them they could play wherever they could find a school. then after they won a title, the same lhsaa took it away. i think you need to do some research before you just start slinging mud. almost all of my family lives in Louisiana so i know exactly what im talking about....i put a question mark by evangel because i wasnt sure which private school would complain but knowing the corrupt Louisiana government which trickles down to their school district im pretty sure a school with some pull (most of the private schools, very few public schools) probably got the LHSAA to act on this.....if not Evangel maybe Woodlawn or one of the others, i just said evangel since they are the most recognizable name i dunno which one lost their title they buy every year...its a screwed up system, the private schools and public schools compete against each other like they are not different in Louisiana and i find it kind of ironic that the LHSAA is going to hammer a public school for "recruiting" when they have to beat teams that do it all the time......By the way Evangel should win, they stopped allowing teams to play in a higher classification (which never mattered to Evangel who was winning many state championships in the highest classification in a row) a couple years back in Louisiana so Evangel which is about the size of a Texas 1 or 2A school has to play them instead of playing the bigger Louisiana schools (will prolly eventually hurt Evangel recruiting by the way) but for now they are playing in my cousin's district with basically a team full of kids going to play at a D1 school....teams know they are going to get hammered so bad in District play they forfeit the game for fear of getting injured, well except my cousin's team who played them and they lost 3 players since it literally is men among boys in this situation....if that sounds chicken just remember sometimes in schools these size you only have about 30 football players....

[SuusJudex]

Originally posted by sahen
almost all of my family lives in Louisiana so i know exactly what im talking about....i put a question mark by evangel because i wasnt sure which private school would complain but knowing the corrupt Louisiana government which trickles down to their school district ....

yeah, i am in shreveport and can tell you firsthand that LA high school football is tainted with the recruiting game. there are a handful of schools, including evangel, which dominate year after year. i can say this though, evangel's imminent decline will coincide with the rise of the next LA high school powerhouse program - Calvary Baptist. that's where the booty's migrated. watch em, they should start coming together soon. they have only 4 seniors on the whole squad, so they will be a force for quite sometime.

[luvhoops34]

Originally posted by sahen
almost all of my family lives in Louisiana so i know exactly what im talking about....i put a question mark by evangel because i wasnt sure which private school would complain but knowing the corrupt Louisiana government which trickles down to their school district im pretty sure a school with some pull (most of the private schools, very few public schools) probably got the LHSAA to act on this.....if not Evangel maybe Woodlawn or one of the others, i just said evangel since they are the most recognizable name i dunno which one lost their title they buy every year...its a screwed up system, the private schools and public schools compete against each other like they are not different in Louisiana and i find it kind of ironic that the LHSAA is going to hammer a public school for "recruiting" when they have to beat teams that do it all the time......By the way Evangel should win, they stopped allowing teams to play in a higher classification (which never mattered to Evangel who was winning many state championships in the highest classification in a row) a couple years back in Louisiana so Evangel which is about the size of a Texas 1 or 2A school has to play them instead of playing the bigger Louisiana schools (will prolly eventually hurt Evangel recruiting by the way) but for now they are playing in my cousin's district with basically a team full of kids going to play at a D1 school....teams know they are going to get hammered so bad in District play they forfeit the game for fear of getting injured, well except my cousin's team who played them and they lost 3 players since it literally is men among boys in this situation....if that sounds chicken just remember sometimes in schools these size you only have about 30 football players....

Thanks for the info. It's nice to hear from somebody who actually knows what they're talking about. :)

[44INAROW]

I was in Bastrop LA and Monroe LA last Weds, Thurs and Friday for a funeral - and I noticed they had their annual "Jamboree" at ULMonroe last Saturday - I wish I'd of had more time to stay and watch those teams play. Keep hearing about Evangel etc, wanted to see how good they are

[PPHSfan]

Well, let's assume for a minute that everyone does know what they are talking about. I will just say this. There are only two dominate private schools in LA. They both used to play in 5a and 4a and they both won again last year after being forced down to smaller classifications. The team that complained about Bastrop's title was a public school. But that is not even the problem that I have with this ruling. The LHSAA told all of the kids that had been displaced by the storm that LAST year they would be able to play at any school they could find to attend. They said that the only exception would be that schools could not recruit OTHER school's players. TWO of the many kids that played for BASTROP HS last year came from a school district that had been destroyed by the flood. These kids were staying at a shelter in Texas. They had played the previous season with a coach that had moved to Bastrop as an assistant. They called the coach on the phone and asked him if he would come get them so they could play football. I don't now about some of you, but if I were a Junior FB player in HS and had just lost my home in a flood, and had the chance to play, (and the LHSAA had told me that I could play anywhere I could find a school), I would be on the phone trying to find a place to play. Well, I am not saying that what the coach did by going and getting the kids was right or wrong. What I am saying is this. You can't tell the kids one thing, and then take away their title and their next year of eligibility when you don't like the fact that they played on the State Championship team. I am also saying, that in this particular case, private vs. public is NOT the issue. I believe that once the National media gets through with this, Bastrop is going to win their appeal. Furthermore, shouldn't the school or the coaches be the ones that suffer consequences for breaking "recruiting" rules, not the student athlete that will miss his Junior or Senior year (that he can't get back) because he just wanted to play somewhere?

[Gobbla2001]

Originally posted by PPHSfan
not the student athlete that will miss his Junior or Senior year (that he can't get back) because he just wanted to play somewhere?

that bugs me

[Txbroadcaster]

For the record, Private schools in LA might win on the field, but when it comes to off the field they usually are ganged up on by the public schools, just look at how the dominate private schools were forced down in classification.

[sahen]

i agree w/ you wholeheartedly PPHSfan, its a screwed up thing thats the main thing here.....LHSAA needs to get its act together...

[sahen]

Originally posted by Txbroadcaster
For the record, Private schools in LA might win on the field, but when it comes to off the field they usually are ganged up on by the public schools, just look at how the dominate private schools were forced down in classification. the big public schools that cant win titles because of the private schools have some pull, the smaller public schools have none or there is no way they would have done that....the whole system is just really messed up in Louisiana....

[Txbroadcaster]

Originally posted by sahen
the big public schools that cant win titles because of the private schools have some pull, the smaller public schools have none or there is no way they would have done that....the whole system is just really messed up in Louisiana....

Mainly because it is the coaches who run things in LA..For all the gripe we have at the UIL, at least it TRIES to be fair

[PPHSfan]

Originally posted by sahen
i agree w/ you wholeheartedly PPHSfan, its a screwed up thing thats the main thing here.....LHSAA needs to get its act together...

I think that commissioner Henry retires this year. Maybe it will get better. I think making Evangel and Curtis move back down was insane. Moving them both back to 5A and putting them in the same district along with West Monroe and a couple of the dominate Catholic schools would at least give a few schools some relief. On another note, Evangel is down this year and SLC is gonna tear them a new one. They will still win 1A which is laughable making them play there, but I think they play SLC AND Longview. They may be the only state champ in LA that loses their first three games. :D

[sahen]

In my opinion Louisiana really should look to Texas here and make the private schools play each other and the publics play each other...the private schools have a ridiculous competitive advantage since they can recruit and the public schools cant.....i hope it changes PPHS but it has been that way for a long time so i doubt it will....im just glad my parents moved to Texas when they were married so i didnt have to deal w/ it when i was in highschool, our setup is so much better....

[Phil C]

USE SOME COMMON SENSE!

SHOW SOME COMPASSION!

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[Phil C]

AND SHOW SOME DECENCY!

:mad:

[District303aPastPlayer]

this made Around the Horn yesterday or the day before... i was shocked to see it on that show

[PPHSfan]

Originally posted by District303aPastPlayer
this made Around the Horn yesterday or the day before... i was shocked to see it on that show

Will probably make Real Sports, Best Damn, and Cold Pizza soon.