SMCISD says recruiting investigation flawed
District asks UIL State Executive Committee to review procedures
San Marcos CISD has presented evidence alleging that the University Interscholastic League District 28 Executive Committee violated the rules during its hearings regarding accusations of recruiting against the school district.
San Marcos Athletic Director John Walsh, who spoke at the DEC meeting, alleged numerous violations made by DEC including violations of both the Texas Open Meeting Act and the UIL Constitution and Contest Rules.
“We filed a complaint to the UIL that District Executive Committee Chair Jana Cervantes did not follow the UIL Constitution and Contest Rules,” Walsh said. “The UIL provides a handbook, or in layman terms, cliff notes, on how to run a meeting, and they (DEC) failed in literally every aspect of following the rules. In those meetings, there were students and employees that were motioned, ruled on, and the DEC made recommendation penalties against them. There were several Texas Open Meeting Act Violations that took place and UIL Constitution and Contest Rules that were not followed.”
Among other issues, Walsh alleged that the DEC did not have a quorum to make the meetings legal.
The DEC is composed of six members, San Marcos High School, New Braunfels High School, Cibolo Steele High School, Schertz Clemens High School, Converse Judson High School and East Central High School.
During the investigation into the allegations of San Marcos recruiting players, New Braunfels, Steele, Clemens and Judson presented their findings as well as San Marcos.
According to Section 28 of the UIL Constitution and Contest Rules in regards to Voting on Questions Before the Committee, members of the committee are not entitled to vote in a case which he or she or the member school represented is involved.
This includes presenting evidence, making a report of violations, being charged with a violation, the student in question is leaving and the student in question is changing.
“Having six members of the DEC, the biggest rule that was broken from the constitution was that they didn’t have a quorum to conduct this meeting,” Walsh said. “The UIL states that if you present evidence against a student or school, you are not to be involved in the decision making for that hearing. You can provide testimony but you cannot make a motion, vote and make recommendations for penalties. Every member who gave detailed evidence, New Braunfels ISD, Judson ISD, Cibolo- Schertz-Universal City ISD were not allowed to vote. The only school who could vote or make a motion was East Central, which doesn’t make a quorum.”
Because East Central was the only member eligible to vote, according to Walsh, the meetings should have been sent to the UIL State Executive Committee (SEC) to vote on.
“According to the (UIL) constitution, all of those hearings should have been sent to the State Executive Committee,” Walsh said. “By that time that packet of evidence against us that we proved was lies that by the time we got there wouldn’t be presented to (the State Executive Committee) as lies, which created a cloud the SEC referred to at the end of the hearing. There was no proof that we recruited, the State Executive Committee said, but there was a cloud. That cloud was presented by the DEC that did everything procedurally wrong... We want the DEC to be held accountable for making rulings on students and employees that they didn’t have the right to do.”
Another violation the school district alleged the DEC committed was not allowing either the students nor the parents enough time to defend themselves against the allegations.
According to DEC Handbook, DEC should provide notice of the hearing to the student, school employee or representative of a school alleged to be in violation of the UIL Rules five business days before the hearing.
San Marcos CISD presented evidence that Frans Steyn, the father of one of the accused students, was denied a copy of all the evidence used against his son and family with an email being sent to DEC Committee Chair that was never responded to.
“Any bit of evidence that is presented to a student or a parent should be present to them five days before the hearing so they can refute it,” Walsh said. “We go into this guilty until proven innocent. You can’t prove your innocence until you know what the evidence is. The DEC failed to do that. The UIL states that a meeting shouldn’t take place until five days after the students and parents have received the evidence presented against them.”
Another piece of evidence presented by SMCISD against the DEC alleged that evidence used against San Marcos in regards to recruiting was never verified and allegedly falsified.
SMCISD claims to have two audio recordings of a Judson ISD employee, who coached with the AAU team, stating “his job was threatened if he didn’t submit a specific email,” according to documentation SMCISD presented to the DEC. The email outlined potential connections between the AAU team and use of facilities at SMCISD.
One piece of evidence that was presented against San Marcos in the original hearing incorrectly identified a SMCISD coach standing with San Marcos High School freshmen football players as the coach of the AAU football team in question. According to SMCISD, that coach had no prior connections to the AAU football team.
“The DEC is supposed to investigate the evidence presented,” Walsh said. “They (DEC) did none of that and took it all as truth. We have refuted the evidence, emailed documentation, audio documented evidence that what was presented was falsified.”
The DEC is meeting again on February 24 to determine whether or not to submit a summary of their findings to the SEC showcasing the alleged mishandling of the case against San Marcos CISD.
“We trust the State UIL Athletic Directors will review the summary of findings from the February 3rd DEC meeting, and respond accordingly,” Walsh said.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
