Saline MI
10-09-2024 12:16am

Board to Appeal Saline Football Forfeits, Ineligibility of Player

Saline Area Schools will contact the MHSAA to reinstate one of its football players and appeal the forfeiture of three wins the Hornets gained with him in the lineup.

The player was found by the district to be in violation of MHSAA residency rules after a letter to the student bounced back to the district. The violation, self-reported by the district, has caused heartache and criticism around the district.

At Tuesday's meeting, The Board of Education spent two hours in closed session before emerging and directing Superintendent Steve Laatsch to submit a formal letter of appeal to the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

The motion was made by Vice President Jennifer Steben and seconded by Brad Gerbe before it was passed unanimously. President Michael McVey said the appeal would be sent to the MHSAA on Wednesday. 

After last Thursday's special meeting, which drew very raw comments and criticism of the Athletic Department and Superintendent, McVey struck an ad hoc committee led by Steben. Trustees Brad Gerbe and Susan Estep were appointed to the committee.

All three are up for re-election in next month's general election.

Football parents Kandace Jones, Tammi Carr and Tamika Leonard were added to the ad-hoc committee. Kyle Short, head coach of the Saline football team, was available to answer questions for the committee. The committee deliberated on what might be included in an appeal letter. Jones, a former member of school board who offered steps for an appeal at last week's meeting, created two documents for the board to discuss during closed session. Specifically,  Jones said the board should ask for an immediate appeal to the  MHSAA Executive Council- which isn't scheduled to meet until November, long after the playoff picture is determined.

Steben said she hoped the players feel listened to and supported.

"This process has reinforced to me how strong we are when we work together as one in service to our students," Steben said earlier in the meeting. 

Estep said the committee spent 4.5 hours on the issue over two days.  Gerbe said the biggest reason he wanted to spend the time on the project was the students.

"Thank you for coming to talk to us. Thank you for those connections. We serve you," Gerbe said.

During Tuesday's meeting Laatsch addressed criticism of the Athletic Department. He said he acknowledged that the relatively young Athletic Department did have areas that needed improvement, but he issued his support.

"They do a lot of great things and they have brought stability to a department that has consistently turned over athletic directors every few years," Laatsch said.

Laatsch then listed a series of accomplishments of Athletic Director Ashley Mantha. They include:

  • A process for onboarding coaches where there was none.
  • She's established an evaluation process for coaches. The process now allows a say for student-athletes and parents.
  • A tremendous improvement in the student grade check process.
  • A significant improvement in the visibility of the department.
  • Updating the athletic handbook and more.

The tenor of the discussion was the subject of some criticism of some board members, including Trustee Tim Austin and Steben.

"It's OK to be critical of us as a district and we need to use that to improve. We need to do this in a respectful manner and for the most part we have," Austin said. "I've heard some comments that claimed Superintendent Laatsch was racist in some of these decisions, and I just want to tell you, Steve, that is not you."

Steben said the district needed to work through its "bridges of civility" on some of the comments from the podium.

"It's difficult. I totally get it. But we can accomplish so much more through civil conversation and respect," Steben said.

The board heard from players and parents, who beckoned the board to appeal to the MHSAA.

"I just ask that the school district an athletic department do what is right in regard to the situation concerning the forfeits and eligibility of my teammate," said Isaac Furlong, starting center on the football team.

Coleman Ross, a senior captain of the team, asked the appeal to be made with more urgency.

"The MHSAA board meets next in November. By then, it will be playoffs, and the playoff points from the wins he had will be officially lost," Ross said. "Me and my teammates have worked so hard this season just to get punished for something we didn't have anything to do with."

Jaiden Leonard, senior captain, said there are only two games left on the schedule. Going into the playoffs with a 5-4 or 6-3 record means the Hornets will likely not have any home playoff games.

"We obviously deserve a chance for more than that (two home games), with us being undefeated," Leonard said. He asked the board to work urgently.

Saline's record is now 3-3 instead of 6-0. Saline is heavily favored to win its final two  SEC games.

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10-09-2024 11:37am

The previous Supt. reviewed every applicant for School of Choice or new students entering the district mid-year to verify the information in the application.

When the individual was a athlete he made sure to explore the 15 exceptions to the one year ban for athletic programs and worked with the family to address their circumstances prior to enrollment. With 20 - 50 kids that was a simple thing to do. This Supt. did none of those things and has not chosen to meet with the family prior to submitting the report to the state. OOPS

When you expand the program to over 500 without putting in place new methods to manage this very important circumstance and no one in leadership (THE BOARD) does not question, monitor or otherwise Govern the conduct of the Administration of the District then they are not doing their job effectively.

Recognize that this individual has played in multiple sports, putting ALL of them as risk, highlights the mistakes made in this example and trust me take a look and you will find ALOT more examples of where the Board and this Administration has run on auto pilot for the last couple of years.

Folks remember these details when you vote next month on whether to retain the current board members seeking reelection or would we be better served by Board Members who actually supervise, analyze and govern the performance of the district rather than drive personal agendas or are cheerleaders for the mediocre performance of the current School Administration.

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10-09-2024 1:30pm

Do the student and family bear any responsibility for knowingly breaking the rule?

Who recruited the student athlete to Saline last year? What were he and his family told about the need to establish residency? Was enrollment via schools of choice not an option, and if so, why? Was it because that would mean sitting out one full year for any sport he played at his previous school?

Who provided the Saline address that mail bounced back from? The family? Someone else?

Why isn't someone at the school verifying the addresses of all athletes to ensure their eligibility? Is there something within the power or political structure at Saline preventing that?

On what grounds is Saline appealing this rule violation?

There are many missing facts.

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10-09-2024 2:09pm

Disappointed by this decision.  Understand the emotions of students and parents.  The bottom line is regardless of where the process broke-down, the school violated the rules.  This is an opportunity for these kids to learn about team (when you are part of a team, you win/lose/take responsibility as a team), accountability, respect for the rules, respect for the teams they played who lost while they had ineligible players, and the fact that rules matter.  This is the reality of life.  Sometimes it does not feel exactly fair to the individual.  The individual matters less than the whole and the values, principles, and respect we should be teaching our kids.  Just read an article the other day about young people being fired in large numbers because they simply have not been prepared to deal with the realities of being a functioning, responsible young adult/adult.  This is a perfect example of how and why that is happening.

The Superintendent did EXACTLY what I would expect a person to do under these circumstances.  The parents and Board, not so much.

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10-09-2024 5:52pm

I feel like there's a lot of talking around the issue, because some parts of this story feel opaque. 

Assuming the student
— attended Saline schools in the past (as some have stated),
— and played for Saline schools in the past (as some have also stated),
— presumably this kid was also a resident of Saline, because
— there has been no mention of recruitment above.

Where's the issue?

That got my mind wandering

Once upon a time I taught at a college, and one of my colleagues was discussing a (scholarship) student-athlete who was very stressed out going into winter break (when the residence halls were closed): the student was homeless, and didn't have resources to go anywhere. It raised a whole bunch of questions about what the school could do, or what was permissible by the department and faculty of that department, and how that affected NCAA eligibility (especially as it pertained to athletes and gifts). (It got resolved.)

As that example popped in my head... if a student-athlete in Saline were to become unhoused, especially before the beginning of a semester (since the games in question were at the beginning of the season), it presents a big gaping hole between MHSAA eligibility, 1st–12th Grade in-district registration for Saline Schools, and applying for School of Choice in Saline.

I'm suddenly much less worried about the record of the team after that thought exercise, and hope that the school is doing right by the student, if the above worst-case scenario is playing out.

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10-10-2024 10:59am

This story has so many holes. I think it makes Saline look even worse to ask for an appeal after they self reported. It seems like they are saying we were wrong but we still want our wins. I understand it's sad for the players who did nothing wrong, but sometimes in life you may be affected by the actions of others and kids need to learn how to deal with that. Also if Saline wanted to show transparency they would have an independent investigation. Not 3 school board members(who are up for reelection) and football parents.  The stories circulating about this situation are going to continue without complete transparency.

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10-11-2024 12:21pm

Here is the bottom line. Like you said, this is 3 members of the Board trying to spin the issue to avoid telling folks they dropped the ball on SOC Policy Admin, Oversight of Administration Practice regarding new student orientation, Oversight of the District Communications Program and the Supt. stopped managing the SOC intake Program.

Supt. Laatsch quietly moved the District from 50 to over 500 Out of District Students in violation of the SOC Policy that was approved in 2013 and never modified to allow this expansion of out of district student population.

The Board ignored his willful violation of this policy until called out on it by Trustee Austin and then they spent time trying to avoid dealing with it until forced to address it with a "administrative oversight explanation".

The poor parent and child were left in the dark about the 15 exceptions that most likely would have prevented this problem if the Supt. had met with the family PRIOR to enrollment and had the student enroll properly and then he failed to meet with the family before authorizing the communication to the State Athletic Association.

The highly paid Communications Director has not provided the community with the actual facts because to do so would show that the Board, the Supt. and the AD failed the family, the coach, the team and the community and now they are using the appeal process to avoid tell us they screwed up.

Folks think about this before you return the three current Board Members for another term. Have they earned your vote with their performance in their current term?

Has the Supt. earned your trust through his performance or do we need to as a community hold him accountable for his performance? If so how?

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