There’s one other Catholic college sports activities scandal below approach, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles apparently was the one one who didn’t see it coming.
On Saturday, Bishop Montgomery in Torrance introduced soccer coach and co-athletic director Ed Hodgkiss was not employed by the college.
In different phrases, he was fired.
He’s apparently going to be the autumn man for 5 Bishop Montgomery switch college students being declared ineligible by the Southern Part, a number of Bishop Montgomery suspensions imposed after gamers left the bench with 24 seconds left in a loss in Hawaii and Bishop Montgomery having to forfeit to No. 1 Mater Dei on Friday due to lack of gamers.
Folks within the Southern California soccer neighborhood have been speaking about Bishop Montgomery for months as they noticed one switch after one other welcomed to the college. Southern Part officers waited for weeks to obtain the transfers’ paperwork. 5 gamers have been declared in violation of CIF bylaw 202, which incorporates offering false data.
If a college attempting to quickly enhance its soccer program with quick cuts sounds acquainted, it’s.
In 2020, St. Bernard turned to former Narbonne coach Manuel Douglas, who received eight Metropolis titles. Douglas was compelled out at Narbonne and didn’t coach in 2019 after a nine-month Los Angeles Unified College District investigation. Narbonne was banned from the 2019 playoffs and compelled to forfeit its 2018 Metropolis title to be used of an ineligible participant.
Douglas later resigned within the spring of 2020 when he got here below an FBI and IRS investigation over cash obtained from a Narbonne booster to pay for a visit to Hawaii whereas teaching at Narbonne.
St. Bernard proceeded to drop its soccer program in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
This previous week, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese wrote in an e mail in response to a request for an replace about Bishop Montgomery, “The investigation is ongoing and there aren’t any developments to share at the moment. The college and the Division of Catholic Faculties are in communication with the CIF Southern Part workplace because the investigation continues.”
Final spring, Bishop Montgomery’s new principal, Michele Starkey, was requested by The Instances in a telephone name, whose individuals included new college president Patrick Lee, if she was conscious of any involvement by the identical Narbonne booster tied to Douglas’ resignation in Bishop Montgomery’s program. She mentioned no.
The archdiocese ought to begin its investigation proper there. Gamers don’t begin immediately displaying up from throughout Southern California with no purpose.
Classes weren’t discovered. Gamers from final yr’s Bishop Montgomery group noticed what was occurring and transferred out. Perhaps the Archdiocese ought to ask them what was occurring.
A Bishop Montgomery father or mother wrote in a letter to The Instances, “Returning gamers have been demoted, excluded from journeys or stop; Archdiocesan Catholic values seem secondary to short-term athletic publicity; regardless of my June outreach to the college, no reply ever got here.”
Messages left for Hodgkiss and Lee on Saturday weren’t returned.
It’s one other massive mess for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to wash up, and it was very a lot preventable if classes from the previous had been discovered.
