The Southern Section announced on Friday that it has declared 19 transfer students at Bishop Montgomery athletically ineligible for two years following an investigation that determined they violated CIF bylaws when moving to the Catholic school in Torrance to play football.
The announcement comes after the school fired its coach, Ed Hodgkiss, canceled the rest of its season after playing one game and announced the resignation of President Patrick Lee following an investigation by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The Southern Section released the following statement: “Based upon the investigation, self-reporting, and findings of Bishop Montgomery High School, along with CIF-Southern Section’s own independent review, the Southern Section has determined that multiple students transferred to Bishop Montgomery High School to play varsity football for the 2025-2026 school year in violation of CIF bylaws.
“Notification has been sent to Bishop Montgomery High School administrators and parents/guardians of the football transfer student-athletes. Those determinations [have been/will be] posted on the CIF-Southern Section website in conformance with Section practices. The CIF-Southern Section and its staff will not comment on individual student athletic eligibility.”
The Southern Section previously announced ineligibility for five players. After further investigation, there are 19 players listed as ineligible on the Southern Section transfer portal.
Some of those players were expected to try to transfer to other schools after Bishop Montgomery discontinued varsity football. They are listed as ineligible for two years. Those players can appeal to try to restore their eligibility.
For months in the spring and summer, Bishop Montgomery had been touting its transfers. The school scheduled powerhouse Mater Dei for a nonleague game even though its program was primarily Division 10 or 11 in past years. While transfers were checking in, none of the paperwork was submitted to the Southern Section until August. That’s when trouble began.
This year, the Southern Section has been using AI and possibly funds available through the state CIF to hire investigators to double-check transfers submitted by schools. Previously when a school approved a verified change of address, it was mostly automatically accepted. There have been other schools determined to have ineligible players, with Long Beach Millikan having to forfeit two games.
This comes after a booster to Narbonne, St. Bernard and Bishop Montgomery, Brett Steigh, received a letter from an attorney with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles telling him to “cease and desist” from helping any Catholic schools.
Steigh went on a podcast to say he paid parents to transfer their sons to Narbonne in 2024 and he also helped pay tuition of football players at St. Bernard in 2020. The football program was dropped there in 2021, 2022 and 2023 after the head coach resigned in the middle of an FBI and IRS investigation.
From Eric Sondheimer: Bishop Montgomery has forfeited the remainder of the 2025 football season and reported more rule violations amid statements by a booster about his past activities paying parents of transfer players, the school announced Tuesday night.
Mike Hall will be the interim football coach while the Archdiocese of Los Angeles investigates why five Bishop Montgomery transfer students were declared ineligible for two years by the Southern Section for violating CIF bylaw 202, which involves submitting false information. The school announced it reported additional violations of the CIF transfer policy within the football program and continues to investigate the football program.
“We recognize the gravity of this situation and we are deeply sorry for the lapse in oversight that resulted in violations of CIF-SS regulations,” a letter released Tuesday signed by Bishop Montgomery principal Michele Starkey and school president Patrick Lee read. “We are instituting corrective actions aimed at ensuring compliance and preventing such issues in the future.”
The decision was handed down a day after Brett Steigh, a 1992 Narbonne High graduate, booster, local businessman and gambler, said during an appearance on the “Fattal Factor” podcast that he paid parents to secure transfers for Narbonne and St. Bernard before currently “helping” Bishop Montgomery. Narbonne in Harbor City is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, while the Archdiocese of Los Angeles operates St. Bernard in Playa del Rey and Bishop Montgomery in Torrance.
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DODGERS
From Jack Harris: Now is the time, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes, for his team’s intensity to rise.
And if the external pressures of a tight National League West race, postseason seeding implications and a looming World Series title defense in October don’t do it, then maybe, he hopes, increased internal battles for playing time will.
For a while on Tuesday night, in a series opener against the perpetually rebuilding Pittsburgh Pirates, the Dodgers showed fight. Clayton Kershaw gave up four runs in an ugly first inning, but the lineup clawed its way back to even the score — thanks, in part, to a 120-mph rocket of a home run from Shohei Ohtani in the third, his 46th of the season and 100th as a Dodger and a tying solo blast from Andy Pages in the fourth.
Kershaw, meanwhile, settled down to get through five innings without any more damage, retiring 13 of his final 15 batters to put the Dodgers in position for a come-from-behind win.
Instead…
Once more, the Dodgers fell to a team miles behind them in the standings, losing 9-7 at PNC Park to drop their 10th game out of the last 14 against opponents with losing records this season.
Mitch Farris pitched five effective innings to win his major league debut and Jo Adell hit a two-run homer that helped the Angels defeat the Kansas City Royals 5-1 on Tuesday night.
Adell finished with three hits and Oswald Peraza had an RBI double for the Angels, who scratched star slugger Mike Trout less than an hour before the game because of a skin infection.
George Raveling had an impact that stretched far beyond basketball, the sport which he last coached three decades ago at USC. He became a revered figure in the game, not for the number of wins he accumulated over his career, but for his role as a mentor to many.
Raveling, 88, died Monday after a battle with cancer, his family announced.
“There are no words to fully capture what George meant to his family, friends, colleagues, former players, and assistants — and to the world,” the family said in a statement. “He will be profoundly missed, yet his aura, energy, divine presence, and timeless wisdom live on in all those he touched and transformed.”
From Ben Bolch: Two days after a 33-point loss in which his team gave up 492 yards while missing a slew of tackles, DeShaun Foster indicated that he didn’t feel quite so bad about what might have felt like the end of days to UCLA fans streaming out of the Rose Bowl before the end of the third quarter.
What was the coach’s assessment after rewatching the game footage?
“That we were close,” an upbeat Foster said Monday evening of his team’s season-opening 43-10 setback against Utah.
Before reporters could follow up by asking “Close to what?” Foster went on to suggest that a number of corrections might help the Bruins (0-1) make the needed improvement before facing Nevada Las Vegas (2-0) on Saturday at Allegiant Stadium.
But the Rams’ kicker, punter/holder and long-snapper, respectively, have shown signs that they could have the collective staying power of former Rams stalwarts Greg Zuerlein, Johnny Hekker and Jake McQuaide.
From 2012 to 2019, Zuerlein kicked, Hekker punted (and occasionally passed) and McQuaide snapped for the Rams under former special teams coordinator John Fassel.
The current specialists can envision a similarly lengthy future together.
“We all work really well with each other,” said Evans, a third-year pro. “We all know exactly what each other’s do’s and don’ts are, what makes each other better.”
Anchored by kicker Cameron Dicker, punter JK Scott and long snapper Josh Harris, the Chargers’ specialists have been a bedrock of stability the past three seasons. That steadiness seemed in jeopardy when Scott’s contract expired this offseason.
Like a rock band losing its guitarist, it looked as though the group might have played its final tour together. But for Scott — whose bond with Dicker and Harris runs deeper than football — staying in L.A. felt like divine intervention.
“Truly, it was something me and my wife made a decision together from a place of prayer,” Scott said of re-signing. “We felt like we were supposed to be here. The relationships that we have here, we just felt like this was the right fit.”
From Kevin Baxter: Cindy Parlow Cone has a soft spot in her heart for World Cups, having played in two and won one. Fewer than a couple of hundred people in history can make that claim.
But next June, Cone, president of U.S. Soccer, will do something that has never been done before when she becomes the first female national federation head to preside over soccer’s biggest tournament.
“You will see a lot of me. Being the host country, we will be very visible,” Cone said of an event the U.S. will share with Mexico and Canada. “It’s FIFA’s show; they’re running the tournament. We will be largely focused on the impact of the World Cup and growing our game.”
The first time the World Cup was held in the U.S., it had quite an impact on growing the game since its legacy included the birth of a first-division league in MLS and a $60-million surplus that was invested in soccer development at the grassroots level.
1908 — Canadian world heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Burns KOs Australian Bill Lang in 6 rounds in Melbourne in a warmup fight for his famous title bout with Jack Johnson.
1921 — The U.S. defeats Japan in five straight matches to win the Davis Cup.
1932 — Ellsworth Vines wins the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships with a three-set victory over France’s Henri Cochet.
1944 — Frank Parker wins the men’s singles title with a four-set victory over Bill Talbert in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships. Pauline Betz captures her third straight women’s title with 6-3, 8-6 victory over Margaret Osborne.
1945 — Frank Parker defends his U.S. Open title, defeating Bill Talbert 14-12, 6-1, 6-2 in the final of the first postwar U.S. Open.
1956 — Jockey John Longden surpasses Sir Gordon Richards’ then-record number of wins by riding Arrogate to victory in the Del Mar Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack to attain his 4,871st victory.
1974 — Future Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame guard Oscar Robertson retires; leaves NBA with 26,710 points, 9,887 assists & 7,804 rebounds in 1,040 games.
1975 — Martina Navratilova, 18, defeats Margaret Court, who is 33 and competing in her 11th and final U.S. Open, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
1977 — Ken Rosewall, two months shy of his 43rd birthday, is beaten by 24-year-old Jose Higueras, 6-4, 6-4. The in a best-of-three-set third-round match marks Rosewall’s final U.S. Open singles match.
1989 — Chris Evert defeats 15-year-old Monica Seles, 6-0, 6-2, for her 101st and final U.S. Open singles win.
1994 — Miami beats Georgia Southern 56-0, breaking an NCAA record with its 58th consecutive home victory. The Hurricanes surpass Alabama’s record of 57 wins in a row at home set from 1962-82.
2001 — Jockey John Velazquez becomes the first jockey to ride six winners on a single card at Saratoga Racecourse. Velazquez guides Starine to a 5¼-length victory in the Diana Handicap, a 1 1-8 mile turf race, for his sixth win.
2006 — Sparks center Lisa Leslie wins the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player award, joining Sheryl Swoopes as the league’s only three-time winners.
2016 — Serena Williams’ dominating third-round victory at the U.S. Open is notable for a milestone: 307 Grand Slam wins. Williams’ 6-2, 6-1 win over 47th-ranked Johanna Larsson of Sweden improves her major-tournament mark to 307-42, putting her one win up on Martina Navratilova among women and tying Roger Federer among all players in the Open era.
2017 — UCLA’s Josh Rosen fakes the spike and throws a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Lasley with 43 seconds remaining and UCLA overcomes a 34-point deficit to stun Texas A&M 45-44. Rosen is 35 of 59 for 491 yards and throws four fourth-quarter touchdowns. UCLA scores on five straight possessions after trailing 44-10 with 4:08 to play in the third quarter.
2022 — 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams plays her final match at the US Open, losing 7-5, 6-7, 6-1 to Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia in a third round match in New York.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1917 — Philadelphia’s Grover Cleveland Alexander went the distance in both games of the Phillies’ 5-0 and 9-3 sweep of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1947 — Bill McCahan pitched a no-hitter to give the Philadelphia Athletics a 3-0 win over the Washington Senators. One batter reached base for Washington, a two-base throwing error by first baseman Ferris Fain in the second inning.
1947 — The New York Yankees had 18 hits, all singles, in an 11-2 victory over Boston at Fenway Park. Tommy Henrich and Joe DiMaggio each had four hits.
1957 — Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves pitched his 41st career shutout with an 8-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Spahn’s shutout set a major league record for left-handers.
1970 — Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs asked to be kept out of the lineup, ending his National League record of 1,117 consecutive games played. His record was broken in 1983 by Steve Garvey.
1976 — Milwaukee’s Mike Hegan hit for the cycle and drove in six runs to lead the Brewers to an 11-2 rout of Mark Fidrych and the Detroit Tigers.
1986 — Billy Hatcher’s homer in the top of the 18th inning gave the Houston Astros an 8-7 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The teams used a major league record 53 players in the game.
1990 — Bobby Thigpen set a major league record with his 47th save in a 4-2 Chicago White Sox victory over Kansas City. Thigpen broke the record set by Dave Righetti of the New York Yankees in 1986.
2000 — Kenny Lofton’s 1st-inning run ties a 1939 major league record set by the Yankees Red Rolfe for scoring in 18 consecutive games. The speedy Indians outfielder, besides hitting the game-winning homer in the 13th, also steals five bases tying Cleveland’s single-game record set by Alex Cole.
2001 — Bud Smith became the 16th rookie in modern history to throw a no-hitter and the second to do it to San Diego this season in St. Louis’ 4-0 win. Smith was making his 11th career start.
2007 — Pedro Martinez completed his comeback from major shoulder surgery and quickly went into the record books, becoming the 15th pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters in his career. The New York Mets right-hander needed only two strikeouts to reach the mark in a 10-4 win over Cincinnati.
2008 — Baseball’s first use of instant replay backed an on-field call of a home run for Alex Rodriguez during the ninth inning of the New York Yankees game against the Tampa Bay Rays. It took 2 minutes, 15 seconds to uphold the homer that gave the Yankees an 8-3 lead.
2011 — Milwaukee’s George Kottaras hit for the cycle to lead the Brewers to an 8-2 win over the Houston Astros.
2013 — Pinch-hitter Travis Snider homered in the ninth inning to lift Pittsburgh to a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers that clinched the Pirates’ first non-losing record in 21 seasons.
2017 — Jose Ramirez tied a major league record with five extra-base hits, including a pair of home runs that deflected off Detroit outfielders, and the Cleveland Indians routed the Tigers 11-1 for their 11th straight victory. Ramirez had three doubles in becoming the 13th player with five extra-base hits in a game.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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Brett Steigh, a Narbonne High graduate, booster, local businessman and gambler, claims he violated City and Southern Section rules by paying parents of high school football players to help level the playing field.
Steigh said during a Monday night appearance on the “Fattal Factor” podcast that he paid parents to secure transfers for Narbonne and St. Bernard before currently “helping” Bishop Montgomery. Narbonne in Harbor City is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, while the Archdiocese of Los Angeles operates St. Bernard in Playa del Rey and Bishop Montgomery in Torrance.
While name, image and likeness policies allow for payment of players, recruiting transfer athletes and paying their parents as much as $50,000 remains a violation of the California Interscholastic Federation’s undue influence rules.
“I ain’t doing nothing that others aren’t doing,” Steigh said, alleging Orange County private schools, including national powerhouse Mater Dei, paid to secure transfer players.
A Mater Dei spokesperson has not yet responded to a request for comment in response to the allegation.
Steigh said he recruited players in 2018 and 2024 to Narbonne without the knowledge of the head coaches while paying parents to move. Both times, Narbonne was sanctioned by the City Section for rule violations.
He said he met with St. Bernard President Carter Paysinger in 2020 and agreed to support that school after former Narbonne coach Manuel Douglas took over the program. Douglas told The Times on Tuesday the payments reached close to $1 million between funding tuition for incoming freshman football players and improvements at the school. Douglas said school administrators were aware of the contributions.
Steigh said he has now been “supporting” Bishop Montgomery with the knowledge of the school’s president, Patrick Lee.
Bishop Montgomery had five transfers declared ineligible by the Southern Section and has received more than 20 transfers in its football program entering this school year. The school fired its head coach, Ed Hodgkiss, on Saturday.
In a text message to The Times, Lee denied any connection to Steigh.
“What he said was an outright lie,” Lee said. “Neither the principal nor I ever met this man, spoke to him, emailed him, texted him — nothing.”
The City and Southern Section commissioners are aware of the statements Steigh made during the podcast, with one telling The Times they are reviewing them.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is investigating why five Bishop Montgomery transfer students were declared ineligible for two years by the Southern Section for violating CIF bylaw 202, which involves submitting false information. The archdiocese declined to address questions about Steigh’s allegations.
“The Archdiocese of Los Angeles does not discuss details of an ongoing investigation,” a spokesperson told The Times. “Once we have more information, we’ll share that with you.”
Bishop Montgomery canceled the game it was scheduled to play Friday against Leuzinger High, the second consecutive week the team forfeited a game after calling off a contest against Mater Dei last week. If Bishop Montgomery cancels the remainder of its football season, the players on the roster might be free to immediately transfer to other programs if they get a hardship waiver.
Steigh said he agreed to appear on reporter Tarek Fattal’s podcast because he felt it was wrong that Hodgkiss — the Bishop Montgomery football coach — was fired.
“Pat knew what the deal was and now he’s backing away. Not fair,” Steigh said, referring to the Bishop Montgomery president.
Hodgkiss told The Times he has been advised by legal counsel not to answer any questions.
A Bishop Montgomery parent wrote in a letter to The Times that an influx of football transfers joining the program was given preferential treatment.
“Returning players were demoted, excluded from trips or quit,” the parent wrote. “Archdiocesan Catholic values appear secondary to short-term athletic exposure. Despite my June outreach to the school, no reply ever came.”
In the spring, The Times asked new Bishop Montgomery Principal Michele Starkey if she was aware of any involvement by Steigh in Bishop Montgomery’s program. She said no.
When Steigh was asked during the podcast why he would risk players’ eligibility by getting involved at Bishop Montgomery, Steigh said he felt previous administrations he worked with didn’t have the backbone to succeed at recruiting players.
“They told us it wouldn’t be … sorry I shouldn’t say that,” Steigh said of Bishop Montgomery’s leadership. “They’re basically supporting to win right now.”
When pressed for more details, Steigh said, “I can’t comment on any players at Bishop Montgomery.”
He said he has now decided to retire from supporting high school football programs.
Steigh said he previously was a traditional booster at Narbonne, making donations to help pay for helmets, uniforms and a washing machine.
“In 2018, I decided to play the game that everyone else was playing,” Steigh said. “The head coach at the time did not want to do this. It was all on me. I lied to him. These players just showed up. Why? I wanted to compete with the private schools. I felt it was unfair public schools being left behind.”
Four coaches of Marine League schools forfeited games against Narbonne last season while demanding a City Section investigation into whether transfers were paid to play for the school.
“All these rumors through all these years, it’s all true,” Steigh said. “It was all me.”
The question of whether Bishop Montgomery’s football team goes forward with its season after firing its head coach on Saturday and forfeiting last week to Mater Dei remains uncertain.
The school fired head coach Ed Hodgkiss and did not announce a replacement. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles continues to conduct an investigation into why five transfer students were declared ineligible for two years by the Southern Section for violating CIF bylaw 202, which involves submitting false information.
Bishop Montgomery is scheduled to play Leuzinger on Friday, but Leuzinger coach Jason Miller said he canceled practice on Monday considering the holiday and uncertainty over whether the game would be played. Bishop Montgomery forfeited its game last week to Mater Dei after numerous players were suspended for leaving the sideline before the end of a game in Hawaii in which the Knights lost 34-27.
Adding another possible twist, if Bishop Montgomery were to cancel its season, players could seek a hardship waiver from the Southern Section to gain immediate athletic eligibility at another school without moving. When programs have been dropped in the past, that opens the way for hardship waivers. And Bishop Montgomery has lots of players other programs would welcome.
A decision on the program’s future is expected this week.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. What’s a high school football season without scandal and success. It’s just happening in the opening week.
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Bishop Montgomery woes
Bishop Montgomery announced the firing of its football coach after weeks of turmoil that saw the program lose five transfer students to ineligibility, saw numerous players suspended for leaving the team bench during a loss in Hawaii and finally was forced to forfeit to Mater Dei because it did not have enough players to compete.
Valencia quarterback Brady Bretthauer has his team at 2-0.
(Craig Weston)
Valencia has come out with a 2-0 start behind its dynamic duo of quarterback Brady Bretthauer and running back Brian Bonner. Here’s a report from its victory over Chaminade.
Santa Margarita went to overtime to beat Corona Centennial and deliver a first victory for coach Carson Palmer. Here’s the report.
Loyola, despite losing more than a dozen players in the off season to transfers, upset Long Beach Millikan behind Stanford commit Max Meier, who had 10 tackles and two sacks.
Yorba Linda rallied for a win over Edison in a battle of top 25 teams. Here’s the report.
It was a rough opening game for Hamilton freshman quarterback Thaddeus Breaux. The Yankees lost to Gardena Serra 47-0. But Breaux showed off a strong arm and looked resilient, good qualities for the future. Hamilton plays Crenshaw on Friday. Here’s the report from the Serra loss.
Crenshaw is 2-0 but longtime coach Robert Garrett has not been on the sideline. Here’s a report.
Referee Charles Davis & Co. deserves the MVP award for Thursday, except next time he needs a police escort. Was referee at Hamilton for flag football game. Then was referee at L.A. High for afternoon 11-man game. Then was referee for Serra at Hamilton night game.
San Pedro and Carson rebounded from losses in their opening games to rout City Section opponents Kennedy and Dorsey.
University coach Bryan Robinson (left) and brother Jason Robinson, an assistant, with their father, 80-year-old EC Robinson, a former Locke and Uni coach.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
The sons of former Locke and University coach EC Robinson have University at 2-0. Here’s the report.
Orange Lutheran (12-0) and JSerra (8-0) continue look like the top two teams in flag football and they will be meeting twice in league play with games on Sept. 30 and Oct. 9.
Redondo Union defeated San Pedro in the championship game to win the LA City Girls Flag Football Classic.
Agoura won the Malibu tournament championship. Kiyomi Kohno was named MVP.
It’s go tiime for Redondo Union in girls volleyball facing two huge tests this week. First up is a home match against 9-0 Marymount on Tuesday, followed by a road match against 7-1 Mater Dei.
Redondo Union is 13-1 and led by four-year starter Abby Zimmerman.
“Sea Hawks pull out a win vs. a TOUGH LB Poly team 25-20, 23-25, 25-11, 26-24 😎💪
Sea Hawks move to 9-1 on the year.
Next up, Thu 5:30 @ Bishop Montgomery
We had a SPECIAL guest before the match, All-American setter Kami Miner!! One of the ALL-TIME greats for Ruhs!!! pic.twitter.com/vJvgyB1BbF
Brandon McCoy gets fired up after a basket for St. John Bosco. He had 28 points in overtime win over Richmond Salesian.
(Nick Koza)
After rumors all summer that he would be transferring from St. John Bosco to Sierra Canyon, standout guard Brandon McCoy made it official, enrolling at the Chatsworth school last week. He didn’t attend St. John Bosco’s opening day of school last month, so it was only a question of the news becoming official. His arrival coincides with the arrival of JSerra transfer Brannon Martinsen at Sierra Canyon. The best player might be Maximo Adams, who’s being recruited by Duke and Kansas. It will make for a quite a Mission League season with Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Harvard-Westlake and Crespi all having top players.
And don’t feel sorry for St. John Bosco, which picked up sophomore point guard Cam Anderson from Eastvale Roosevelt. . . .
Pauley Pavilion will be the site on Nov. 22 for a Mission League vs. Trinity League basketball challenge that features an 8:30 p.m. matchup of St. John Bosco vs. Harvard-Westlake. Santa Margarita will play Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at 7 p.m. and Sierra Canyon will face JSerra at 5:30 p.m as the featured matchups that begin at 9:30 a.m.. . . .
Cole Knupfer of St. John Bosco has committed to St. Mary’s for baseball. . . .
Sophomore 6-6 forward Evan Willis has transferred from Mater Dei to Crossroads. . . .
Tom Kelly is the new swim coach at Edison. He was at Crean Lutheran. . . .
Westlake pitcher Caden Atkinson has committed to UC San Diego. . . .
USA 18U baseball team headed to Japan. Anthony Murphy (Corona), James Clark (St. John Bosco), Jared Grindlinger (Huntington Beach), Jaden Jackson (St. John Bosco), Brody Schumaker (Santa Margarita) made the team.
Chaminade basketball coach Bryan Cantwell is such a big San Diego Padres fan that he listens to every game and his dogs are named Manny and Tatis. pic.twitter.com/3MWpZk0OMd
Loyola running back Tahj Owens on his way to scoring five touchdowns against Culver City in 2021.
(Brody Hannon)
Entering his senior season at Princeton, Tahj Owens is a former Loyola running back who’s become a key player at defensive back for Princeton. He started every game last season.
Do high school football players understand they are being filmed at all times during a game? Their actions and decisions will be publicized, for good or bad. That’s why it is so important to learn lessons from coaches about discipline. Yes, mistakes are made. It’s what you learn.
The feel good story is former Stanford walk-on WR Brycen Tremayne from Venice High (yes City Section) making Carolina Panthers 53-man roster. From 2020. https://t.co/5ObXY0IZ44
Soccer parents are not pleased at Newbury Park, Westlake and Thousand Oaks. The Conejo Valley Unified School District signed off on turf and stadium refurbishment starting Dec. 1, leaving 18 soccer teams without fields until February.
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There’s another Catholic school sports scandal under way, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles apparently was the only one who didn’t see it coming.
On Saturday, Bishop Montgomery in Torrance announced football coach and co-athletic director Ed Hodgkiss was no longer employed by the school.
In other words, he was fired.
He’s apparently going to be the fall guy for five Bishop Montgomery transfer students being declared ineligible by the Southern Section, multiple Bishop Montgomery suspensions imposed after players left the bench with 24 seconds left in a loss in Hawaii and Bishop Montgomery having to forfeit to No. 1 Mater Dei on Friday because of lack of players.
People in the Southern California football community have been talking about Bishop Montgomery for months as they saw one transfer after another welcomed to the school. Southern Section officials waited for weeks to receive the transfers’ paperwork. Five players were declared in violation of CIF bylaw 202, which includes providing false information.
If a school trying to rapidly improve its football program with short cuts sounds familiar, it is.
In 2020, St. Bernard turned to former Narbonne coach Manuel Douglas, who won eight City titles. Douglas was forced out at Narbonne and didn’t coach in 2019 after a nine-month Los Angeles Unified School District investigation. Narbonne was banned from the 2019 playoffs and forced to forfeit its 2018 City title for use of an ineligible player.
Douglas later resigned in the spring of 2020 when he came under an FBI and IRS investigation over money received from a Narbonne booster to pay for a trip to Hawaii while coaching at Narbonne.
St. Bernard proceeded to drop its football program in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
This past week, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese wrote in an email in response to a request for an update about Bishop Montgomery, “The investigation is ongoing and there are no developments to share at this time. The school and the Department of Catholic Schools are in communication with the CIF Southern Section office as the investigation continues.”
Last spring, Bishop Montgomery’s new principal, Michele Starkey, was asked by The Times in a phone call, whose participants included new school president Patrick Lee, if she was aware of any involvement by the same Narbonne booster tied to Douglas’ resignation in Bishop Montgomery’s program. She said no.
The archdiocese should start its investigation right there. Players don’t start suddenly showing up from all over Southern California with no reason.
Lessons were not learned. Players from last year’s Bishop Montgomery team saw what was happening and transferred out. Maybe the Archdiocese should ask them what was happening.
A Bishop Montgomery parent wrote in a letter to The Times, “Returning players were demoted, excluded from trips or quit; Archdiocesan Catholic values appear secondary to short-term athletic exposure; despite my June outreach to the school, no reply ever came.”
Messages left for Hodgkiss and Lee on Saturday were not returned.
It’s another big mess for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to clean up, and it was very much preventable if lessons from the past had been learned.
Ed Hodgkiss is no longer the football coach or co-athletic director at Bishop Montgomery. Principal Michele Starkey and president Patrick Lee made the announcement in a letter to parents on Saturday, writing Hodgkiss is “no longer employed at Bishop Montgomery.”
Bishop Montgomery and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have been scrambling to deal with the fallout from weeks of turmoil in the football program.
It started with the Southern Section declaring five transfer students ineligible this season for violation of CIF bylaw 202, which is providing false information. Then the team had numerous players suspended after a first-game loss in Hawaii when they left the bench with 24 seconds left. That forced Bishop Montgomery to forfeit Friday’s game against Santa Ana Mater Dei because of a lack of players.
The Archdiocese announced it would conduct an investigation into the transfer issues.
Hodgkiss came to Bishop Montgomery in 2010 from the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League.
Bishop Montgomery changed principals and presidents last school year and appeared to move to a different sports philosophy, accepting numerous transfer students with the hope of elevating the football program to a higher level of competition. The school is scheduled to leave the Camino Real League after this season.
No new coach was announced. Messages left for Hodgkiss and Lee were not returned.
Bishop Montgomery told officials at Mater Dei on Monday that it will not be able to play its scheduled football game Friday at Santa Ana Stadium, thus forfeiting to the No. 1-ranked Monarchs.
Numerous Bishop Montgomery players are subject to possible one-game suspensions for leaving the bench with 24 seconds left on Saturday in Honolulu during a 24-17 loss to St. Louis, another Catholic school.
The Southern Section assigned its South Bay officials unit on Monday to review video to determine which Bishop Montgomery players had left the bench, which would be a violation of CIF rules.
It has been a rough start for Bishop Montgomery, which already had five players declared ineligible by the Southern Section after a violation of bylaw 202, which involves providing false information after transferring.
Mater Dei opened its season Saturday with a victory in Florida and will move to 2-0 on the season. Bishop Montgomery drops to 0-2.
The Southern Section has declared five football transfers to Bishop Montgomery ineligible for violating CIF rule 202, which is a bylaw about providing false information and comes with a penalty of up to two years of ineligibility.
Bishop Montgomery has been under scrutiny for months because of numerous transfer students, coaching changes and a decision to try to upgrade the program by scheduling powerhouses Mater Dei and Honolulu (Hawaii) Saint Louis.
The Southern Section could offer no response until paperwork was submitted by the school. Now those five players, plus potentially others, are facing the possibility of missing the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles replaced the president and principal of Bishop Montgomery last school year. New president Patrick Lee is a former St. John Bosco administrator.
