By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
In what is believed to be the harshest recruiting penalty in California history, Sac-Joaquin Section officials have banned the Franklin High-Stockton football program from postseason play for five seasons.
Section commissioner Pete Saco told reporters on Tuesday that Franklin committed 54 bylaw infractions involving 10 American Samoan players at the school the past three years.
The section, one of 10 in the state, asserted that Franklin's coaching staff paid for airfare and room and board for the 10 players. Saco said expenses approached $70,000.
The players, according to a six-month investigation, were each contacted in American Samoa; a U.S. territory in the South Pacific located 4,800 miles from the West Coast, by the mother of a Franklin assistant coach.
Those contacts were among 35 cases of undue influence.
The Sac-Joaquin Section includes 180 Northern California schools and is located in and around the Sacramento region.
"The litany of evidence is overwhelming and irrefutable, and to be honest, it's very disturbing," Saco told reporters in a press conference. "This was a calculated scheme."
According to a story in the Modesto Bee, the sanctions include:
- A ban from the SJS playoffs and no league acknowledgement (games will be played but not count in the standings) through the 2011 season.
- Forfeits of 19 wins over three seasons, including five this year (the team is 5-1 on the field).
- Ineligibility through the rest of the school year for three senior American Samoan players.
In addition, two SJS appointed administrators will review all transfers into Franklin through the 2014 season.
All sanctions were handed down to the football team at Franklin only. The school's other athletic teams will not be penalized.
The longest postseason ban for any one California team in recent memory is three seasons, according to Cal-Hi Sports editor Mark Tennis, who has covered sports in the Golden State almost three decades.
The penalties come three weeks after the section announced its findings in a 200-page report.
The following week, according to an Associated Press story, parents of two of the players who were allegedly recruited, filed a claim in the U.S. Territory's High Court against Saco and the SJS, claiming they were negligent and invaded their privacy.
Much more litigation figures to follow.
Stockton Unified School District Superintendent Jack McLaughlin told the Bee that the district "will have its day in court," and that "They investigated for six months, then they gave us eight days to respond. We're guilty until proven innocent in this system."
Said Saco: "This needed to be done for the 180 schools in our section that do follow the rules."
According to the Bee, this isn't the first time Franklin, under head coach Tom Verner, has been in trouble.
A 10-0 Franklin squad, also coached by Verner, was banned from the postseason in 1997 because of undue influence concerning its top player.
"All we want is our due process," Verner told the Bee about the latest penalties.
The Stockton school district plans to appeal to the section's board of managers (principals) this week. If the penalties aren't overturned, then it figures to go the California Interscholastic Federation state office.
If those appeals don't go anywhere, this will likely go to litigation.
Franklin, winners of five straight on the field since an opening-night 42-28 loss to Grant-Sacramento, plays at Sac Joaquin Athletic Association rival Chavez (4-2) on Friday night.
E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com.