montclair prep banned

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SoCalHoops High School News

Montclair Prep Banned From Playoffs
In All Sports For Undue Influence--(Jan. 27, 2003)

The Daily News first reported this on Saturday and then the LA Times followed up on Sunday, so it's really not "news" but there's been a lot of confusion about exactly what happened over the weekend at Montclair Prep. So we asked around and confirmed a couple of things concerning what happened as well as determining whether the announced ban applies to all sports, including basketball. And sadly, we learned that the ban is immediate, and that it applies to all of the sports teams at Montclair Prep, including both the boys' and girls' basketball teams, both of which are highly ranked within their respective divisions. The ban will apply to this year's playoffs, to all spring sports, and to next fall's sports, including football, cross-country and tennis.

The issue which caused the CIF to investigate and ultimately impose the "undue influence" ban involved a football player, not a basketball player, but nevertheless, the complaint led to a broader and wider investigation. The ban imposed is, in essesence, the functional equivalent of the penalty which the NCAA imposes for lack of instutitional oversight, and is one step removed from what many refer to as the "death penalty," or a complete ban on all interscholastic competition. In this particular case, the CIF-SS stopped just short of a total and permanent ban, but indicating the seriousness of the situation, the CIF imposed the ban not just on the football team, but on all teams. This is the second time that Montclair Prep has been sanctioned severely by the CIF, the last occurring in the early 1990's, for recruiting violations involving a high-profile football player from Mater Dei.

So what happened this time to lead to such a severe penalty? Details are sketchy, but based upon the few reports we were able to confirm from reliable sources, it appears that the CIF relied upon a violation of the CIF's Bylaws which prohibit a school from engaging in "undue influence" with respect to actions regarding enrolled students.

Specifically, CIF Bylaws preclude anyone, including a school administrator or coach from engaging in "undue influence" with respect to a player's athletic eligibility or with respect to any student's decision to continue to remain as an enrolled student at a school. Most people think of "undue influence" simply within the context of a coach or someone else recruiting a player to transfer into a school, but it also applies with respect to actions taken by a school or coach towards students currently enrolled which affect whether or not the student will or will not transfer out.

The rule, Bylaw 510, prohibits anyone, including a coach or school administrator from using "....undue influence....to secure or retain a student or to secure or retain one or both parents or guardians of a student...."

Stated more specifically, "undue influence" is defined in Rule 510 as:

"...any act, gesture or communication (including accepting material or financial inducement to attend a CIF member school for the purpose of engaging in CIF competition regardless of the source) which is performed personally, or through another, which may be objectively seen as an inducement, or part of a process of inducing a student, or his or her parent or guardian, by or on behalf of, a member school, to enroll in, transfer to, or remain in, a particular school for athletic purposes."

Evidently, the player involved (whose identity cannot be revealed either by the school or the CIF for privacy reasons) was allegedly told by one of his coaches that unless he continued to participate on the football team, he would have to leave the school because the student's family would no longer receive the tuition assistance (financial aid) which the student received while he participated on the team. Again, details and specifics were not available, given the federal privacy concerns, but evidently, according to reliable sources, the CIF found enough evidence after conducting a full investigation to warrant the imposition of the official sanction.

Sadly, this means that the boys' basketball team, which was doing very well considering the fact that their star player, Nick Stiggers, returned to Tennessee before the start of the season, will not be eligible to compete in the playoffs, and likewise, the girls' basketball team, which features one of the top players in SoCal, Eshaya Murphy who has signed with USC and is currently ranked No. 4 in Division IV-A, will also not make the playoffs either.