The Southern Part introduced on Friday that it has declared 20 switch college students at Bishop Montgomery athletically ineligible for 2 years following an investigation that decided they violated CIF bylaws when shifting to the Catholic college in Torrance to play soccer.
The announcement comes after the college fired its coach, Ed Hodgkiss, canceled the remainder of its season after enjoying one sport and introduced the resignation of President Patrick Lee following an investigation by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The Southern Part launched the next assertion: “Based mostly upon the investigation, self-reporting, and findings of Bishop Montgomery Excessive College, together with CIF-Southern Part’s personal unbiased evaluate, the Southern Part has decided that a number of college students transferred to Bishop Montgomery Excessive College to play varsity soccer for the 2025-2026 college yr in violation of CIF bylaws.
“Notification has been despatched to Bishop Montgomery Excessive College directors and oldsters/guardians of the soccer switch student-athletes. These determinations [have been/will be] posted on the CIF-Southern Part web site in conformance with Part practices. The CIF-Southern Part and its employees is not going to touch upon particular person scholar athletic eligibility.”
The previous coach and several other gamers beforehand employed an lawyer to research the matter.
The Southern Part beforehand introduced ineligibility for 5 gamers. After additional investigation, there are 20 gamers listed as ineligible on the Southern Part switch portal.
A few of these gamers have been anticipated to attempt to switch to different colleges after Bishop Montgomery discontinued varsity soccer. They’re listed as ineligible for 2 years.
For months within the spring and summer time, Bishop Montgomery had been touting its transfers. The college scheduled powerhouse Mater Dei for a nonleague sport although its program was primarily Division 10 or 11 in previous years. Whereas transfers have been checking in, not one of the paperwork was submitted to the Southern Part till August. That’s when hassle started.
This yr, the Southern Part has been utilizing AI and probably funds obtainable by way of the state CIF to rent investigators to double-check transfers submitted by colleges. Beforehand when a faculty accredited a verified change of tackle, it was largely robotically accepted. There have been different colleges decided to have ineligible gamers, with Lengthy Seashore Millikan having to forfeit two video games.
This comes after a booster to Narbonne, St. Bernard and Bishop Montgomery, Brett Steigh, obtained a letter from an lawyer with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles telling him to “stop and desist” from serving to any Catholic colleges.
Steigh went on a podcast to say he paid dad and mom to switch their sons to Narbonne in 2024 and he additionally helped pay tuition of soccer gamers at St. Bernard in 2020. The soccer program was dropped there in 2021, 2022 and 2023 after the top coach resigned in the course of an FBI and IRS investigation.
