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June 28, 2006
RECRUITING CHARGED Fernley football program racked by NIAA edictsSPECIAL TO THE PVT
According to a report from the Web site, nevprep.com, NIAA executive director Jerry Hughes said Fernley coach Mark Hodges will be further investigated for allegedly recruiting at least one other player. If found guilty of the recruiting allegation, Hodges could face a two-year suspension from coaching in Nevada. The school also has been placed on "warning status" by the association for conducting practices on Sundays in violation of rules, Hughes said. Additionally, Hughes said he has instructed the Lyon County School District to place a letter in Hodges' personnel file, indicating that Fernley's record for 2005 should be considered 0-10 and explaining the circumstances surrounding the forfeitures. On the field, Fernley finished 5-5, losing in the first round of the Northern 3-A playoffs to Spring Creek after beating Winnemucca Lowry and Dayton in league games and Yerington, Mesquite Virgin Valley (a Southern 3-A team) and Quincy, Calif., in non-league contests. "I don't know about this guy ... there's no love lost between him and us right now," Hughes said of Hodges, who was ejected from Fernley's game against Quincy and was suspended, in accordance with NIAA rules, for the Vaqueros' next game, their league opener against Spring Creek. Hodges, a former assistant football coach and head track coach at North Medford High School in Oregon, was hired last May to replace Dave Hart, who was fired after 25 years - the longest continuous tenure by any Nevada football coach at the time. At least three North Medford players came to Fernley at the same time as Hodges, and all three transferred back to North Medford as soon as Fernley's football season was over. Tom Welter, executive director of the Oregon State Athletic Association, confirmed that the three players all attended North Medford this school year. He said, however, that all three were immediately declared ineligible under Oregon rules to participate in athletics during the winter and spring seasons. One of the three players to make the Oregon-to-Nevada-to-Oregon move was Hodges' son, Colin, who was the team's starting quarterback. His Nevada eligibility was never questioned because of his parents' job-related move. The player declared ineligible by Hughes - and the player whose ineligibility forced Fernley to forfeit its five wins - is Jori Kaeser, a wide receiver/defensive back who transferred to Fernley from North Medford last summer. Hughes said Kaeser's situation is not considered recruiting because he had been living with the Hodges family for six months in Oregon before Hodges took the Fernley job. However, he was never eligible to play in Nevada because the NIAA guardianship requirements weren't met, and because the transfer clearly was for athletic purposes, in violation of NIAA rules. In that respect, the Kaeser case was similar to one involving Pershing County Lovelock this past season, when a player transferred there from Lowry to live with a relative and played football for Lovelock last fall. Hughes ordered the Mustangs to forfeit all but one of their 12 victories - they reached the 2-A state finals before losing to Lincoln County - but said he considered the problem inadvertent and not an intentional attempt by Lovelock to circumvent NIAA rules. Noting that Pershing County School District personnel thought they had certified the player's residency, and had fully cooperated with the investigation after the problem was discovered, Hughes said no other action would be taken against the school or any of its coaches or administrators. Lovelock was not placed on "warning status," as was done with Fernley. |
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