More violations hit Pub
Forfeitures put Frankford, West Philly out of playoffs
Two qualifiers, including the loop's most glamorous program, yesterday were axed from the playoffs due to the use of ineligible players, while a third school also was forced to forfeit victories. That action followed by 1 week the shutdown of Thomas FitzSimons' program through 2008 for rules violations.
Frankford, winner of the last two crowns and 27 in all, and assured of claiming one of the four playoff spots in the Red Division, is out after confirming that defensive back Taryee Quiah is over-aged.
West Philadelphia was forced to relinquish its Blue Division championship, clinched last Friday in a 31-0 win over Southern, for using two players, Sean Ricketts and John Davis, who are enrolled in a private school, Greater Hope Christian Academy, in Southwest Philly.
Also disciplined was William Penn, a non-playoff squad in the AAA Division. The Lions were using two players enrolled at Robert Vaux; those schools do not have a cooperative agreement.
Information on all three schools' transgressions was confirmed by Robert Coleman, the District 12 chairman. They are forfeiting a total of 13 wins overall; five for West and four apiece for the others.
This is the final week of the regular season. Blue laurels now will go to Abraham Lincoln. George Washington, Northeast and Central have locked up three of the four Red spots. The fourth will go to the winner of tomorrow night's game involving visiting Murrell Dobbins Tech and Germantown.
Unless league officials make an exception, Frankford, assured of placing last in Red, faces a drop to the White Division for 2008.
The fact that four schools this season have been guilty of missteps is bad enough. There might be others.
As he braced himself for his team's fall earlier this week, West coach John R. Lay said, "If we're going down, two more schools are going down. They're using players from private schools, too."
He would not offer specifics. Coleman said Lay had not conveyed that information to him.
Quiah, who played last season for Father Judge, attends Franklin Towne Charter. He was permitted to play for Frankford via a state law allowing charter students to compete for their neighborhood schools in sports not offered at their own school.
However, he will turn 20 in January and thus was 19 before July 1, a violation of PIAA rules.
Quiah, coach Mike Capriotti said, is the only non-Frankford student on the Pioneers' roster.
"I was hesitant to take him since he wasn't in our building," Capriotti said. "But he's a good kid. Comes to practice every day. There are two different birthdates on his records. One in 1988, another in 1989. Apparently, he was born here, but spent a lot of time in Liberia. I asked him when he came to practice today. He said it's 1988.
"This is my fault. Not Taryee's. I slipped up. I take the full blame. I should have caught this earlier and done the cross-checking. There's no way I would have done anything like this intentionally."
Capriotti took aside captains Chris Spence and James Quiles right after speaking with Quiah.
"They were tearing up," he said. "This is going be rough. We'll have to rally and get ready to play out the rest of our schedule."
This was Ricketts' second year on West Philly's squad.
Brad Cashman, the PIAA's executive director, said in rare instances students from private schools play sports for public schools. But rules regarding cooperative sponsorships must be followed and non-member schools are excluded; Greater Hope is not a member.
"Why the red flags now?" Lay asked. "Where were they last year? I didn't think I was doing anything wrong and nobody [in the administration] said anything to me when they checked my paperwork. The rules are ambiguous. I know one thing: John [Davis] didn't do anything wrong.
"This is very upsetting. We started to rebuild the program 3 years ago. Now we're the division champ and we have to give it up. It wasn't like we snuck by in these games. We won most of them easily."
As the District 12 chairman, Coleman said he was proud of how the School District handled these matters.; he also oversees sports for the district.
"Though this hurts, from everyone [above him] involved the approach was the same: These people messed up. We have to nail them," he said. "There was no dilly-dallying. There are rules. They must be enforced. If a matter like this comes up in the Catholic League [now a paper member of PIAA; full membership begins next school year], we trust they'll do the same."
School District spokesman Fernando Gallard said his superiors "are very concerned that these mistakes by adults are hurting our children. We share the level of being upset that they're feeling.
"We have to make clear to our coaches and athletic directors that the rules must be followed, or there will be consequences. These kinds of things can't be tolerated."
YOUR COMMENTS . . .
As if the pub doesn't
have enough problems. Watching CN8 last Saturday
I believe Coleman was on TV telling us what a great job
the Pub officials
are doing and how great the Charter Schools are doing.
I am not going
to make excuses for anyone in the pub and you know I am
Frankford fan,
but Coleman needs to worry about his own league and not
the Catholic
league.
To tell you truth the pub is worse than your statement "only in the
pub". Things this sad start at the top and I mean the
very top. The
only request I would have is CN8 doesn't put Coleman on
next year or any
of his cronies slinging the same BS. I feel sorry for
the kids and they
deserve better from the top up!!!!!
Thanks
Al F.
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This story really struck a nerve because it's
symptomatic of a larger problem we're having with high
school athletics. Winning has become more important
than sportsmanship, fair play, and teamwork. The idea
of charter school kids playing for neighborhood
schools is a bad one. Why should these kids have the
proverbial cake and eat it too? If West Philadelphia
High School is not good enough for these young men,
why should they get the privilege of playing on their
team? I chose to go to Engineering & Science despite
the fact that they did not have a football team. It
never crossed my mind that I could go to Gratz to play
on their team. Why? Because it is a privilege, not a
right, to play high school football. There are
opportunities to play football even if your school
doesn't have a team. It's called the Mt. Airy Bantams,
Olney Eagles, or whatever the local youth organization
is. This applies to countless other sports. There are
local youth basketball leagues, American Legion
baseball, and even tennis has the National Junior
Tennis League at the various playgrounds across the
city. How can you celebrate a TEAM accomplishment the
next school day when so many members of your TEAM
attend a different school? On Thanksgiving Day, I
don't go to watch Northeast HS and their non-Northeast
friends vs. Central HS and their non-Central friends.
It's Northeast vs. Central. Period. End of story. The
PIAA needs to re-examine this rule ASAP!
Also, if a Class AAA school can pick and choose
players from other schools, shouldn't their
classification reflect the size of the combined
enrollment of those schools? FitzSimons clearly
belonged in Class AAAA considering they could pull
from a larger student body that included not only
themselves, but other area schools.
-- Bill G.
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This
is james ''jj '' johnson from george washington i heard
about what happen.
I really feel sorry for both teams. For the captains and
coaches and all the srs., I
really feel bad for frankford because they had a big
opportunity to when the
championship hopefully they come back next year.
-- JJ
---
This sucks! Especially for
West Philly. Although I graduated from Central High, my
Mother attended West Philly and I live in that area. I
was glad to see that they were having a successful
season. And if I am not mistaken there was an article
about one to the players coming from another school that
doesn't have football, which I think is a great idea. He
and their coach had to be under the assumption that it
was ok.
As for Frankford, that's a little more difficult regarding the age. But
in any event the West Philly case should be
grandfathered and a system set up that ensures that
everything is done properly or they should drop the rule
that allows players from other schools.
-- S.B.
---
As I was reading your most
recent story on problems in the public league with
ineligible players, I couldn't help but laugh about
how upset some people are with the Philadelphia
Catholic League (PCL) joining the PIAA. But, the
thing that really got my blood boiling was the
comment by the PIAA director regarding the PCL
joining the PIAA. What was the purpose of that
comment? Why even mention the PCL in his comments?
In just the current season, we’ve seen one Pub team suspended through the
2008 season for two violations of the rules. Now,
just a couple of weeks later, we have three more
teams punished for having ineligible players. And,
the best quote that came out of the story was from
one of the coaches who said, ""If we're going down,
two more schools are going down. They're using
players from private schools, too." Huh? This guys
coaches a high school team. Hey coach, read Mike
Capriotti's quotes and take it as a lesson of how
the buck stops with the head coach. Coach Capriotti
didn't blame anyone but himself (even if it wasn't
his fault) and fell on his sword for the benefit of
his kids and his school. Now that's a stand up guy.
Yet, people are upset with the PCL joining the PIAA.
Some are concerned that the PCL can draw from neighborhoods that are not
the traditional feeder neighborhood, yet I read a
story last season about a kid who travels from one
end of the city to the other to play football
(sorry, I meant to say “to attend a school with
quality academics”). Drive by the Bridge/Pratt
station on the EL on any given school morning and
you’ll see the number of kids with Washington,
Northeast and Lincoln jackets on.
Yet, people are upset with the PCL joining the PIAA.
A couple of years ago, a PCL football player transferred from one PCL
school to another because his dad alledgedly wasn’t
happy how he was being used on the football team.
I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with the
wins/losses for the two schools in question. The
first school didn’t sign off because it was obvious
that the transfer was for athletic reasons. Some of
my Pub friends mentioned that the transfer shouldn’t
have been allowed. But, when he then transferred to
a Pub school for “academic reasons” (take a minute
to stop laughing) and then was allowed to play,
those same people were suddenly quiet.
Yet, some people are upset with the PCL joining the PIAA.
A kid playing basketball for a Pub team suddenly transfers to a PCL
school before his junior year. This causes outrage
by some Pub faithful. I heard people say that he
shouldn’t be allowed to play for the PCL team. What
they don’t care about is the fact that the PCL
School that he transferred to is in his neighborhood
and he can actually walk to school everyday. The
public school he transferred from was a couple of
neighborhoods away and needed to take a bus or two
to get there. Nobody questioned that.
Yet, some people are upset with the PCL joining the PIAA.
The only ones who are hurt in the end are the kids. It seems as though
the public league, which as built several new super
sites over the past few years, is more concerned
about the look of their league than they are with
the kids who play in that league. You can dress the
league up, but sometimes you really can’t take them
out in public. And, to think, some people are upset
with the PCL joining the PIAA.
--Mike F
---
Greetings,
My name is Tiffany Sheppard. I am a Sr. At W. Phila.
High. It saddens me to walk the hall with my fellow
Seniors/Varsity football players knowing that for
once since when received new administration in West
having been able to brag about good things and be in
the good eye of the media for once is now just a
short lived memory. This is totally unfair that we
are being penalized for a complete mistake! The W.
Phila. High Speedboys have worked more than 500% for
this and to have the rug pulled from under them now
is such a shame!! I believe that the PIAA should
rethink their decision this time and make sure this
type of thing does not happen again!! They need to
understand that most of these players are seniors
and this is there last time to do this before they
graduate and they should have a time to remember,
because truthfully that's what high school is all
about!! I hope that right decision will be made in
the end!!
Respectfully,
Tiffany Sheppard
West Philadelphia High
Class of 2008
---
-- LB
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-- HR
---
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I wanted to send you one more e-mail addressing the events of the last couple days. I would like to say I am very proud of Coach Mike Capriotti, his staff and the entire team. In our life time we all have setbacks, failures and disappointments. But none of these define who we are. What does define us is how we respond and react to those challenges. Keep your integrity and character intact and tell the truth no matter what the consequences may be. Coach Capriotti did exactly that and as a Frankford alumni he has made me very proud.
-- Al F.
---
Anyway, the coach who said he hopes the PCL is policing itstelf as well as the PUB' is a little goofy. Maybe. I'll give him a pass, he either got caught or got burnt by someone who had the job of crossing the Ts and dotting the Is. If the PCL is policing itself as well as the PUB then they shouldn't join the PIAA.
-- anonymous
(Ted's note: One clarification: The person who said he hopes the PCL is policing itself as well as the Pub was Robert Coleman, the D-12 chairman. Not a coach.)
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-- Andy Folino
(Ted's note: Andy was Frankford's long-time JV coach and varsity assistant and still remains active with the program.)
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I’m a player for one the teams I’m an ineligible player so called what ever they say if my school doesn’t have a football why should I suffer if I want to play the game of football I was suppose to play for franklin they said but I don’t like the coach there and he doesn’t like me so I went to play for penn and there I got to start and showcase my skills if I was to stay at franklin I never would have played it shouldn’t matter what team I play for if my school doesn’t have a football team I just wanna enjoy the game. I go to Vaux.
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-- Bill Clausen
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With the partnerships, there is too much room for mistakes to be made. You have players that are not in your school on a daily basis, and you have to rely on other adults (not coaches) to tie up loose ends. Any head coach in this league cannot dot all I's and cross all T's. A reliable staff is paramount in this sport. The league may have to seriously have to reconsider this partnership arrangement if they want to avoid further embarrassment in the future. and this truly is an embarrassment.
However, this is not the only embarrassment that the pub faces. In my opinion the new playoff seeding is a travesty. Can it be more obvious that the PUB wants the champ to come out of the RED division. During my time, we had four divisions, with the top two teams in each division making the playoffs. The current "setup" has four teams coming out of the RED division, two from the White, and one from the BLUE and AAA divisions. How can a division with 6 teams place 4 teams in the playoffs. The rules of probability alone will tell you that the number 3 team will be at or just above .500 and the number 4 team will have a losing record. Now while I am fully aware that the division record is what counts, 2,3, and 4 in the red division all have four wins, with two of them below .500. The 3 and 4 teams have losing division records. In the White division, Gratz has made the playoffs with a 3-7 overall record. My team has a better overall record than 4 of the playoff teams, and a better division record than 3 of those four. Now we did not handle business in our division, hence we are not in the playoffs. But it is very disheartening when you have a better record than playoff teams for the second year in a row. If the pub wants to be taken seriously on the state level it has to solve these issues. In the 10/30 issue of the daily news chairman Joe Stanley is quoted as saying "AAA is considered to be "a better division" than BLUE". So why is there only one team from AAA in the playoffs????? Is it because none of our AAA teams are from the Northeast????? If the RED division is supposed to be the cream of the crop, spread them out across the AAAA divisions and lets see if they meet up in the playoffs. With this current system, divisional play is what determines our champion....
-- Coach at a program on the rise.......
(Ted's note: By definition, AAA is based solely on enrollment. The other three divisions are set up, by design, to be grouped by ability. That's why teams move up and down each season. Not a perfect system, of course, but the top six teams are "supposed" to be in Red and that's why it receives so many playoff spots.)
---
I truly feel sorry
for those young men
who had to forfeit
their championships.
I happened to see
the West Philly/
Lincoln game and I
was very impressed
with both the effort
and sportsmanship
shown by both teams.
Having said that;
however, I truly
feel that High
School sports are
moving dramatically
away of their
original intent,
winning has become
an end to justify
any type of
behavior.
Neighborhood teams
which were once
sources of pride
have given way to
mercenaries whose
identification with
the school is only
their jersey
numbers. Young men
who once would die
to put on their
local high school’s
uniform now want to
know what they are
being offered. Year
after year I watch
as the Kennedy-Kenricks
and Conwell-Egans
get decimated in
football and most of
the Catholic League
basketball teams get
ready to be
sacrificial lambs
for a few and shake
my head in dismay.
High School sports
are more than just
winning
championships; it
should also be about
building character
and gaining an
understanding of
hard work.
Unfortunately I
think those concepts
are becoming less
and less a part of
the equation.
-- Fran McD
---
hey ted, i was reading up on all this stuff about the PUB, and also
reading up on all of
the comments people
are writing about
the situation the
PUBS in.. I do feel
real bad for
frankford and west
philly, for the most
part Frankford,
because they had a
great chance of
winning the
championship again.
Also i was reading
up on one of the
comments and someone
was saying that its
not fair that 4
teams from the
BEST
divsion go to the
playoffs..i think
that was the
smartest thing the
PUB ever did. Let me
give you an example,
my Senior year,2005,
My football team
beat
Central, Germantown,
and Bartram all
during that season,
but because my team
was in the best
division playing
power house teams
like frankford,
washington, and
northeast we didn't
get to go to the
playoffs. But
central, germantown
and bartram get to
go because there in
a bad division. So
while we were
sitting home knowing
we were better then
h! alf the teams in
the playoffs we
couldnt do anything
bout it because
theres no comp in
the other
divisions.. we made
our point by beating
those teams from
other divisions, but
got nothing out of
it. But now it
doesn't work like
that because i feel
if my team was in
the B or the C
division we would
have ran all over
those teams from the
lower divisions.
Also another
example, since 1999
it has always been
Frankford or washington
that have won the
championship.. so i
think that how the
pub has its playoffs
made up of is a
wonderful idea...
LINCOLN "05"
---
To stay competitive many ADs ignore their responsibility to check athletes' grades on a weekly basis until report cards are issued, then many athletes receive some sour news because it was not monitored during the season. I know of one situation where athletes were permitted to compete despite all failing grades on their report card. Yes, plural, athletes.
Also, the Central Administration should accept full responsibility for this chaos, because they do not even attempt to investigate teams randomly.
-- SD of Philadelphia Teacher
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