Modesto Chr. Baseball Slammed With Sanctions By CIF

LODI (August 20, 2015) – The Modesto Christian baseball program has been found to have committed CIF bylaw violations in the illegal recruitment of a player over the last school year.

It is the Section’s determination following an investigation with the assistance of the Modesto Christian High School Administration that there was a documented instance of undue influence – up to partially paying tuition – by the Modesto Christian baseball coaching staff in its pursuit of a then-eighth grade baseball player.

The documented example was a letter written by an MC assistant coach in 2014 to the mother of the student-athlete that offered various and detailed financial inducements if the student attended Modesto Christian and played baseball.

This letter, investigated and confirmed as real by the Modesto Christian High School Administration, is a violation of Sac-Joaquin Section bylaws 510.A, 510.D and 201.A.4.

The student-athlete’s mother had contact with the Modesto Christian varsity baseball head coach when the student was an eighth-grader in April of 2014. Members of the coaching staff coordinated a school visit, contacted the school’s financial assistance program and relayed all that information to the player’s mother; all these instances are violations of Section bylaw 510.D (pre-enrollment contact).

The student-athlete in question attended Modesto Christian as a freshman in the 2014-15 school year and played varsity baseball. Because these financial inducements were accepted, this is a violation of Section bylaw 510.B.

The Section commends the Modesto Christian High School Administration for acting as soon as it was notified about these violations. But there are still consequences when a school or district commits bylaw infractions, even when this happens without the administration’s knowledge.

After reviewing the investigation, the Section’s decision is as follows:

• The Modesto Christian student-athlete in question is ineligible for all CIF competition for the entire 2015-16 school year.

• The Modesto Christian varsity baseball program forfeits all games won during the 2014-15 school year.

• The Modesto Christian varsity baseball program is ineligible for the Section postseason for the 2015-16 school year.

• The Modesto Christian entire baseball program schedule will be reduced from a maximum of 27 games to 25 games for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years.

• The Modesto Christian baseball program is on probation for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years. Any violations of CIF bylaws that occur during this probationary period will result in further severe sanctions.

• The Modesto Christian baseball staff was required to attend the New Athletic Directors’ Workshop on eligibility on August 6.