After a five-month investigation into the football team’s coaching staff, the Skaneateles Central School District released a report detailing the illegal recruitment of at least nine players since March 2010.

The report, which came out Oct. 26, mentioned no names of players or coaches, just the wrongdoings from the last year and a half.

Tim Green, the Lakers’ former head coach, had been coaching the team to an undefeated 8-0 season, led by quarterback Troy Green, his son. Skaneateles hasn’t won a Section III title since 1992, and since Green’s arrival two years ago, the team has transformed into a Class C powerhouse.

Green was an All-American at Syracuse University, where he graduated in 1986. He then went on to play eight seasons with the Atlanta Falcons before moving back to Central New York. Green, a novelist, lawyer and TV personality, denied any wrongdoing.

John Rathbun, the Section III executive director, said the protocol for when complaints are filed is listening to the complaint, calling the school district to let them know the conversation that took place and having the district conduct its own investigation. Then, the findings are reported to the Section III Athletic Council for review and ruling.

‘What happened in this situation was violations were reported, and then I brought the report to the athletic council, which is our governing body,’ Rathbun said. ‘Then, they took a look at the report and made a ruling.’

The ruling was made Oct. 28, one day before Skaneateles’ Class C semifinal game against Utica Notre Dame. The Section III Athletic Council voted to suspend the season after reading the school district’s investigation findings.

‘We followed guidelines about who we can and cannot penalize,’ Rathbun said. ‘We followed procedures that are outlined in the state association handbook.’

But later that afternoon, Green and his staff went before a state Supreme Court justice to try and put a temporary restraining order on the ruling so they could play the next day, according to The Post-Standard. The judge granted the temporary order, and Skaneateles and Utica Notre Dame played the game. Skaneateles would go on to easily defeat Notre Dame 46-27.

On Nov. 1, the court upheld the Athletic Council’s ruling to end Skaneateles’ season and the win was nullified, meaning Utica Notre Dame would play in the Class C championship against Herkimer High School in the Carrier Dome.

That same day, in a last-chance effort to salvage their season, Green resigned as head coach, urging the school district to appeal the judge’s ruling to allow the team to play in the championship, according to The Post-Standard.

On Nov. 3, the appeal was denied and Skaneateles’ season was officially over. When Utica Notre Dame found out they were in the Class C finals, head coach Byron Abraham said they were just happy that the dust had settled.

‘I think it was more distracting for the coaches than the kids,’ Abraham said. ‘They handled it very well. They just like playing football. The difficult part for us was, ‘Geez, are we going to play? Are we not practicing?’ But I think it worked out.’

Abraham said they only missed one practice last week despite all of the drama that was going on in court. Not knowing if they were going to be playing in the finals Saturday, he said they didn’t practice Oct. 31 because they thought their season was over. However, when they found out Nov. 1 they would be playing in the finals, the kids were eager to lace up their cleats and get on the practice field.

‘I don’t think legally we could’ve practiced on Monday,’ Abraham said. ‘Tuesday afternoon Skaneateles lost the appeal and we found out we would be playing in place of them, so we practiced Tuesday through Friday.’

Even though Utica Notre Dame lost in the finals to Herkimer 28-14, Abraham said he thinks the court made the right decision, and they were happy to play for the Class C title.

Weedsport head coach Greg Michaels said the incident didn’t affect his team at all. In the initial investigation, it was reported that Green approached three Weedsport players during a summer camp in 2010, telling them if they came to play for him they would have ‘an apartment with a big-screen television and an Xbox,’ according to an Oct. 25 article in The Post-Standard. Green denied the charges.

However, Michaels said the players they spoke to were in college, so it didn’t affect their season at all. ‘We kind of just laughed about it,’ he said.

This is not the first time an incident like this one has happened in Section III. Abraham said in his second year coaching in 2005, it was found that Corcoran High School had an illegal player and was forced to forfeit the remainder of its season.

Rathbun mentioned the illegal player at Corcoran and said that if they had ruled that the Skaneateles football team could play, it wouldn’t be fair to how things were ruled in the past.

Rathbun said this incident affects everyone in Section III and can be used as benchmark for how to move forward.

‘I’m sure that this is going to affect all 109 schools within Section III, taking a look at their own programs and saying, ‘What do we need to do to move forward?” Rathbun said. ‘It affects everyone in Central New York.’

hawentz@syr.edu

Published on November 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm