Section throws book at Franklin

The Franklin High School football program went to great lengths to win 19 games over the past two-and-a-half seasons, stirring up what might be the biggest recruiting scandal ever to hit the California Interscholastic Federation. Now the program is paying dearly for those victories.

Pete Saco

The Stockton school must forfeit all of its games during that span and is banned from postseason play for the next five years, sanctions that were imposed by Sac-Joaquin Section Commissioner Pete Saco on Tuesday for at least 54 infractions involving football recruiting violations of 10 student-athletes from American Samoa.

"The litany of evidence is overwhelming, irrefutable and, quite frankly, disturbing," Saco said during a Tuesday press conference at the section office in Lodi. "This needs to be done for the 180 schools in our section that do follow the rules."

In addition to the game forfeitures and postseason ban, three current players on Franklin's team are athletically ineligible for the remainder of the school year and administrators will monitor the football program through the 2014-15 season.

Mark Tennis, who has covered high school sports in California for more than 30 years, said the five-year postseason ban is the most severe he has ever encountered.

"It's an unfortunate situation in that most of the time an organization like ours has to enforce rules, innocent kids do get penalized," said Saco, noting that the section can only punish the program, not individual coaches.

When asked what action he would take with Franklin head coach Tom Verner — who has been found guilty of recruiting violations in the past — if he were running the Stockton Unified School District, Saco said, "I would probably be having some serious meetings."

Franklin can appeal the section's decision, first by going through the Sac-Joaquin Section Board of Managers and then the state CIF.

Franklin's downfall is Lodi High's gain

Remember that whole coin-flip controversy that Franklin High took to court in 2005? It was all for naught. And the San Joaquin Athletic Association champion that football season? Only Lodi High can now claim that title, as sanctions against the Franklin football program have forced the Yellowjackets to forfeit all of their games that season — rendering the coin-flip tiebreaker between Lodi, Lincoln and Franklin meaningless.
What it means for this year's Lodi football team is one less road block to a potential playoff berth. Lodi visits Franklin in the regular-season finale, but the game will be, in essence, a non-league match — as any games involving Franklin during this or the following four seasons will not affect the league standings.
Theoretically, Lodi could decide not to play the game at all if it chose to do so — considering there's little to gain from the contest and always the potential for injury — but Lodi football coach Todd Dillon doubts that will happen.
"We'll cross that road when we get there," Dillon said. "We'll probably end up playing them. It'd be the right thing to do since Lincoln played them. I think we'll end up playing them (in upcoming seasons) now that things are kind of cleaned up."
— News-Sentinel staff.

Section drops the hammer

The Sac-Joaquin Section imposed the following sanctions against the Franklin High varsity football program on Monday for 54 infractions involving football recruiting violations:
• Three current Franklin High football players are ineligible for all athletic competition at Franklin for the remainder of the 2007-08 school year.
• Franklin must forfeit all of its varsity football games from the 2005 and 2006 seasons, as well as all of its games to date from the 2007 season.
• Franklin will be ineligible for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs from 2007-2011.
• Franklin will be allowed to participate in its 10 regular season football games, but its results in league games will not count in the league standings from 2007-2011.
• The Sac-Joaquin Section will appoint two individuals to monitor the Franklin football program for the 2008 season through the 2014 season. These individuals will be assigned to review all transfer eligibility situations and other duties as requested by the section office.

Franklin students, parents say sanctions unfair

By Amanda Dyer
News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Even though it was just a practice — and a wet, rainy-day practice at that — it was well-attended.
After news that Franklin High would be slapped with substantial sanctions for alleged recruiting violations, students and staff came out to watch the team practice and said their school had their full support.
Jack McLaughlin, superintendent of Stockton Unified School District, stood with Franklin High football coach Tom Verner.
"I assured them that we're behind them," McLaughlin said as he left the field.
Solomon Faatai, along with his sisters, came out to practice to support his brother, Will, who is on the team.
"I think it's distracting to them," said Solomon Faatai, 16, a junior at Franklin.
Fano Faatai, Solomon Faatai's sister, said she didn't think the sanctions placed against the team were fair, especially since she feels the team didn't do anything wrong.
When asked how her brother is handling the news, she said her family tries not to talk about it.
Others at Franklin, though, were not shy about expressing their opinion.
"I think that's Draconian," said Franklin parent Eric Merlo, 51, about the sanctions imposed on Franklin's football team.
Merlo said the decision will unfairly punish future students, some of whom have yet to set foot on the Franklin campus.
Merlo questioned whether Franklin's team was the only football team recruiting players out of American Samoa.
Franklin junior Cory Sarafin, 16, agreed.
"I don't think they're doing anything different than any other schools," Sarafin said.
Franklin High School is a comprehensive high school in southeast Stockton that served 2,624 students in the 2006-07 school year, according to a report from the California Department of Education.
Of those students, 1,604 were Hispanic or Latino; 278 were African American; 230 were white; 290 were Asian; and 156 were American Indian or Alaskan Natives.
A total of 15 Pacific Islander students attended the school last year.
Contact reporter Amanda Dyer at amandad@lodinews.com.

Franklin football timeline

• 1994 — Tom Verner hired as the Franklin High football coach.
• 1997 — The Sac-Joaquin Section rules that Verner committed undue influence by bringing football players Crawford Strong Jr. and Frank Strong, who played for USC and two seasons on the San Francisco 49ers practice squad, from St. Mary's High to Franklin. Verner admits providing a $3,500 loan to the boys' mother. The team's 10-0 record is erased from the league standings and Franklin is banned from the playoffs that season.
• 2005 — Franklin goes to court when the football team lost out on a coin flip that was used to break a three-way tie in the San Joaquin Athletic Association. Verner and then-Athletic Director Steve Terhune protest that the coin flip was improperly conducted. Franklin loses the case as Lodi and Lincoln go to the playoffs and Franklin stays home.
• March 26, 2007, — Sac-Joaquin Section Commissioner Pete Saco receives a voice mail from the head football coach at Faga'itua High School in American Samoa concerning players who'd had their expenses paid to fly to California and later transferred from Faga'itua to Franklin. A conversation between Saco and the coach the following day prompts a six-month long investigation by the section into Franklin's football program.
• June 2007 — Section attorney Scott Donald and consultant Chuck Smrt make an eight-day trip to American Samoa, interviewing parents, players and administrators with possible ties to the Franklin football program.
• Sept. 25, 2007, — The section releases its findings of the investigation, which include at least 54 examples of major infractions involving football recruiting violations at Franklin.
• Oct. 16, 2007, — Based on both the findings of the investigation and Franklin's response to the allegations, Saco imposes various sanctions on the Franklin football program, including a five-year playoff ban and forfeiture of all games from 2005 through the 2007 season to date.

Jack McLaughlin, the SUSD superintendent, called the charges against Franklin "completely unfounded" and said the district was still exploring whether to take the matter to court, according to an Associated Press report.

"We haven't had our day in court," McLaughlin said. "This is about defending our future, past and present students, and we're guilty until proven innocent under this system."

On Tuesday, Verner said he was under strict orders by McLaughlin not to speak to the media. During practice on Tuesday, Franklin coaches also prohibited media members from speaking with players.

The sanctions against Franklin are based on findings gathered from the section's investigative report, and involve 10 students from American Samoa who came to play football at the school. According to the findings, there were at least 35 violations of the undue influence bylaw, which included promises made for airfare, lodging and room and board for players and their families. Saco says more than $68,000 was spent on players and their families over the past three years, calling that figure "a conservative estimate."

The findings also found nine violations of the transfer eligibility bylaw for failure to submit the proper transfer forms to the section, as well as 10 violations of the fraudulent information bylaw. The latter violation involved false information that was provided by Franklin personnel to prove eligibility of the American Samoan players through such means as phony utility bills.

Section attorney Scott Donald says the violations of fraudulent information could have resulted in the "death penalty" — a complete removal of the Franklin football program — because it displayed clear intent to break the rules.

The investigation began when the section office received a phone call from a high school football coach in American Samoa who expressed concerns about players on his team who'd been flown to California and transferred to Franklin soon after. The call led to a six-month investigation, which included an eight-day trip to American Samoa by Donald and consultant Chuck Smrt, and resulted in a 100-page report and more than 200 pages of interview transcripts.

Donald did not yet have an estimate on how much the investigation cost.

Lodi High football coach Todd Dillon, whose Flames compete against Franklin in the San Joaquin Athletic Association, sympathizes with the three athletes who are now ineligible, but believes the section had to be stiff in its penalty.

"In order for the CIF to exhibit their power, they had to do something," Dillon said. "They had to show that they had some teeth, because (the violations) were blatant."

When informed about the sanctions on Franklin, a group of Lodi High football players said they were surprised by the severity of the punishment, but did not care to comment further. However, the players said they'd still like to play Franklin, despite the fact that the game will no longer count in the league standings.

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