Montclair Prep’s Candor Helped Ease Penalties : Ruling: Despite Southern Section’s leniency, sanctions will have long, painful impact.

Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas on Wednesday portrayed Montclair Prep attorney Jim Blatt as the man who saved the school’s athletic program.

But it might be difficult to find any rejoicing Mounties after the school was banned from postseason play in all sports for one year starting next fall.

Perhaps the most pained Mountie is John Hazelton, an assistant football coach who might lose his job as a result of Tuesday’s settlement between the Southern Section and the school.

After the school admitted numerous recruiting violations, the Southern Section placed Montclair Prep on three years’ probation, banned the school from postseason play in all sports for one year and barred the football team from the playoffs for at least two years.

Montclair Prep won the Southern Section Division X football title in 1990 but will be unable to defend that title next fall. The baseball team, the defending 1-A Division champion, can participate in this year’s playoffs but is banned next year.

In addition, if Montclair Prep violates any section rules during its probation, the school will incur a veritable death penalty, a two-year suspension from the section.

Furthermore, Montclair Prep athletes who seek to transfer will be unable to gain athletic eligibility for one year at the new school unless the transfer is accompanied by a change of residence. Under state rules, a transfer student can gain immediate athletic eligibility without a change of residence through a hardship appeal. Both Thomas and City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness said that the penalties against Montclair Prep are unacceptable grounds for hardship.

“The reality is they have suspended no programs,” Harkness said. “The loss of participation in playoffs, as devastating as that may be, is not grounds for hardship.”

The settlement came at a last-minute meeting called by the school and precluded the need for an open hearing before the section’s executive committee, which had been scheduled to start Tuesday.

The penalty was the harshest handed down by Thomas in his five years as commissioner. Still, he characterized the punishment as fair and charitable. “We were forgiving. We’re not trying to kill anybody,” he said.

Clearly, it could have been worse for the Mounties.

“We admitted to wrongdoing on numerous charges, about six or seven aspects of undue influence,” Blatt, the attorney, said. “Even though we would have been able to beat some of them, when you put them all together, it created an appearance of impropriety. The (Southern Section) could have proceeded on everything.”

Thomas credits Blatt’s candor and cooperativeness as key ingredients in the settlement.

“He didn’t try to cover up,” Thomas said. “He was open and forthright and that makes a lot of points with me. His ability to communicate and compromise was the difference. If it had gone into an open hearing, Montclair Prep could have stood to lose a great deal.”

The Mounties will suffer at least one more loss, it seems. As part of the agreement, the Southern Section has recommended the dismissal of Hazelton, who was linked to 80% of the recruiting charges against the school, according to Blatt. Hazelton has 30 days to file an appeal but has yet to decide on a course of action.

Hazelton declined comment Wednesday, except to say that he wants to remain at the school. V. E. “Doc” Simpson, the school’s principal and founder, who had claimed that the school would be exonerated of all charges, also declined comment.

“I can speak for Doc right now and he’s relieved that this is over and the matter is behind the school,” Blatt said.

The episode began with charges that Montclair Prep illegally recruited football players Derek and Leland Sparks, who transferred to Santa Ana Mater Dei last fall. At an eligibility hearing in September for Leland Sparks, the uncle of the cousins claimed that Montclair Prep changed his nephews’ grades and never charged them tuition.

The section launched an investigation after that hearing and also considered charges that the school staged a phony living arrangement in its on-campus boarding facility in 1985 in order to gain athletic eligibility for four football players.

The settlement included no ruling on grade-tampering charges, and neither Thomas nor Blatt would provide specifics about the charges to which the school admitted wrongdoing.

Nevertheless, without admitting guilt to the phony living arrangement charges, Montclair Prep agreed to close its boarding school as part of the settlement.

“In the spirit of openness, there could have been stricter supervision of the boarding school,” Blatt said.

In addition, Montclair Prep agreed to end the practice of granting athletic eligibility to any student living with a guardian, other than the student’s parents, without the permission of the Southern Section commissioner. Derek Sparks, the Times’ Valley Back of the Year in 1989, was the legal ward of Jerome Sparks, his uncle, when he enrolled at Montclair Prep as a sophomore.

Blatt expects the penalties to hit the school hard. And he speaks from personal experience. His son, Jason, played on the defensive line for the Mounties and is now a freshman at Colorado. Another son, Aaron, a sophomore at Montclair Prep, played football last fall and qualified for the Southern Section preliminaries as a wrestler this year.

Blatt said his son will remain at the school despite the penalties.

“This is a disappointment across the board in every sport for the school,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of pain. The penalties make the point clear that if you mess up in one program, you’re held responsible for all programs.

“We’re not saying that the school and some individuals didn’t make mistakes. It’s important that the school not just pay lip service to this agreement. The school has to be involved in the (Southern Section) workings. That’s the way to avoid problems. This solution is well thought out.”