Morgan Hill
– Live Oak High’s football program has been placed on probation
through the 2005-06 school year for a recruiting violation.
A Central Coast Section panel of three principals unanimously
issued the penalty after reviewing a letter to the editor written
by head football coach Glen Webb and published in the Morgan Hill
Times on March 5.
Morgan Hill – Live Oak High’s football program has been placed on probation through the 2005-06 school year for a recruiting violation.
A Central Coast Section panel of three principals unanimously issued the penalty after reviewing a letter to the editor written by head football coach Glen Webb and published in the Morgan Hill Times on March 5.
The panel also reviewed a letter to the editor written by Sobrato High head football coach Jeff Patterson and published in the Times on March 22. While the panel determined that Patterson’s letter did not constitute a violation, it sent a letter of reprimand to Sobrato.
The special panel was convened on March 23 at the behest of CCS Commissioner Nancy Lazenby-Blaser, a Morgan Hill resident who read the letter to the editor by Webb in which he touted his football program and was highly critical of neighboring Sobrato High’s decision to pull out of the Tri-County Athletic League in football.
LO principal Nick Boden, athletic director Mark Cummins and Webb, accompanied by a teachers’ union representative, attended the hearing. Lazenby-Blaser said she is empowered to handle such issues herself but assembled the panel of administrators to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest because she lives in the community.
The panel found that the letter was a deliberate attempt to influence potential football players in Morgan Hill in favor of the LO program at the expense of the Sobrato program, and that the infraction was exacerbated by the fact that the CCS and Sobrato, through Principal Rich Knapp, brought up the issue instead of Live Oak officials.
The panel also found that the letter extended an invitation to area eighth-graders to attend spring practice, a violation of CCS rules. According to Lazenby-Blaser, the probation will apply only to the Acorn football program. If anyone in the program commits an additional rule violation then more serious sanctions would be considered, she said.
Additional sanctions could include removal from league championship contention, ineligibility for the CCS playoffs, suspension of the rest of the season during which the violation occurred, and suspension of the LO football program for a longer period of time, among other possible penalties.
The terms of the probation include:
nPrincipal Nick Boden is required to write a letter of apology to the community on behalf of the high school for the recruiting rule violation related to Webb’s comments, a letter that appears on page 4 of today’s issue of the Times.
nLive Oak is required to develop a written procedure to review the content of any letters written by any member of the high school’s athletic staff prior to publication.
nThe school is required to schedule a minimum of a one-hour review of the CCS recruiting policies and bylaws for all members of the high school’s football coaching staff and any other athletic staff members deemed appropriate.
nPrincipal Boden and athletic director Cummins are required to attend the 2005 CCS administrators’ workshop.
Boden said he considers the penalty a fair one, including the requirement for him to write a letter of apology, and the school will not file an appeal.
“I’m the principal of this school and this (incident) is a reflection on the school to the community,” Boden said.
In the letter, Boden apologizes to Sobrato for Webb’s letter, and its tone and content, and expresses the hope that the two schools will be able to move forward together.
Boden said Webb has not been asked to resign. He added that he hasn’t made a decision on whether to make a head coaching change with the football program but that he and Cummins would be attempting to complete an annual review of all fall sports and any potential changes to be made by the end of the month. Spring football practice begins in May.
Cummins said it’s time for LO and Sobrato to work on their relationship.
“(The incident) was unfortunate,” he said. “We’re a two-high school town now and we have to accept that.”
Lazenby-Blaser said the CCS hearing panel made no recommendation regarding Webb’s status as coach.
