An attorney representing fired Bishop Montgomery High coach Ed Hodgkiss says in a statement his preliminary investigation indicates that an unidentified school official and others were trying “to create a team that could compete” with powers Mater Dei and St. John Bosco.
“The way it appears they were attempting to accomplish this was to deploy the ‘If you can’t beat them join them’ strategy. And so, they did,” according to a statement from attorney Darren M. Richie, who represents Hodgkiss.
Hodgkiss had been a football coach and physical education teacher at Bishop Montgomery for 15 years until he was fired last week. He also served as co-athletic director. Five Bishop Montgomery football players who were transfer students were declared ineligible by the Southern Section for violating CIF bylaw 202, which involves providing false information. Bishop Montgomery has 24 transfer students this year, and a booster who said he had paid parents to move their sons to Narbonne confirmed he also was helping Bishop Montgomery.
Earlier this week, Bishop Montgomery announced it was forfeiting its remaining football games after self-reporting violations to the Southern Section.
The attorney, who also will be representing some of the ineligible players, said in the statement, “From all I have reviewed and independently verified, each and every transfer possesses legitimate documentation because they indeed physically moved. … For anyone that follows high school football, their move was not athletically motivated. Those know that generally their football program was not mentioned in the same breath as top of the heap.”
The Southern Section declined comment, saying the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has an ongoing investigation.
In another development, Bishop Montgomery principal Michele Starkey has resigned as president of the Camino-Del Rey Athletic Assn.
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