Game On: Carroll Will Play Miami Power - Game Was

[gangrene]

Don't know if anyone heard about this, but the scheduled SLC vs. Miami Northwestern football game was in doubt due to a a grand jury report of a coverup of sexual misconduct involving one of the Northwerstern team’s former players. The Miami-Dade superintendent was considering suspending the team's football program for the entire season...but they must be the OU of Florida high schools because the administrators decided against it.

Game on: Carroll will play Miami power

07:37 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 11, 2007

By DAMON L. SAYLES / The Dallas Morning News

Southlake Carroll will not have to look for a replacement for its nationally televised football game in September.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools administrators, in a hearing Wednesday afternoon, decided against suspending the Miami Northwestern football program for the 2007 season, TITUS Sports Marketing representative Dave Stephenson said. District superintendent Dr. Rudy Crew on Monday threatened to suspend the program following a grand jury report of a coverup of sexual misconduct involving one of the team’s former players.

TITUS, a Dallas-based company, and Chicago-based Paragon Marketing Group teamed up to arrange the highly anticipated matchup of two nationally ranked football programs. Carroll, a three-time defending Class 5A state champion, and Northwestern, the defending 6A Florida champion, will meet at 6 p.m. Sept. 15 at SMU’s Ford Stadium. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.

Here's the real scoop from the Miami Herald: Northwestern OK to play -- provided coach gets ax

BY ANDRE C. FERNANDEZ AND TANIA DeLUZURIAGA

a1fernandez@MiamiHerald.com

CHARLES TRAINOR JR. / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Miami Northwestern's quarterback Jacory Harris hugs former coach Roland Smith as assistant coach Rodney Harris (Jacory's father) walks by outside the Miami-Dade School Board. Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Rudy Crew removed the football team's coaching staff for the upcoming season after an incident involving one of the players last year that was covered up by the school's administration.

Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Rudy Crew announced late Wednesday afternoon that Northwestern High's defending state champion football team will be allowed to play this year -- but without the school's popular coach and his staff.

''You will play football this season,'' Crew said during the county's School Board meeting. ``But under a one-year probationary period. I'm not inviting back any of the current coaches on the football team.''

Crew had been weighing whether to suspend the program.

His decision to preserve the program but ax the coaches stems from a sex scandal involving the team's top player and a 14-year-old girl in a school restroom.

The incident has made headlines across Florida since December, and many people believe that star running back Antwain Easterling was given special treatment after he was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a minor. Although a School Board rule mandated a 10-day suspension, Easterling was never disciplined and school and district officials approved letting him play in the championship game. The Bulls won.

Upon hearing of Crew's decision Wednesday, current and former members of the football team that gathered to watch the announcement walked out of the auditorium in unison.

Several players appeared shaken by the news and a few had tears in their eyes. Several players were approached by local media for reaction but refused to comment.

''These aren't just coaches for a lot of these kids,'' local pastor Dwayne Richardson said. ``They are father figures to a lot of these kids, and now they're being asked to go on without them.''

Before announcing his decision to dismiss the current coaching staff, Crew showed the audience from afar a lengthy list of names of Northwestern staff that, according to the grand jury investigation, knew of the incident last year involving Easterling, then 18, and the girl.

Crew, however, did not reveal the names on the list.

Crew also said that Charles Hankerson would remain as Northwestern's principal for the coming school year.

The investigation led to the indictment of former principal Dwight Bernard, who was charged with two counts of official misconduct for failing to report the incident. Easterling, who will play for the University of Southern Mississippi this fall, completed a pretrial diversion program that will keep his record clean. Last week, the school's athletic director, Gregory Killings, resigned after 23 years there.

Crew also stated at the Wednesday meeting that he wanted each player to sign a written contract that would require them to maintain a proper code of conduct on and off the field, and that any violation of it would result in that player's suspension from the team.

The superintendent had been quietly meeting with community leaders for the past two weeks to discuss options. Though Crew outlined several ideas that deal with academic and personnel changes at the F-rated school, it was the possible suspension of football -- the cornerstone of the school's athletic program and a source of pride throughout the Liberty City community -- that angered many Bulls fans.

Richard P. Dunn, a Northwestern alumnus and president of PULSE, People United to Lead the Struggle for Equality, said Crew told a group of ministers during a Tuesday meeting that the district would toughen academic requirements for players and offer more programs to help them meet the grade.

''I think he looked at the situation and realized that to take away football would not cure the problem,'' Dunn told The Miami Herald before Crew disclosed his decision to the board. ``It would only exacerbate the situation. Football was not the reason this thing happened at Northwestern. Football is neither moral nor immoral.''

Miami Herald staff writer Andrea Robinson contributed to this report.

[Coach]

The Miami-Dade superintendent was considering suspending the team's football program for the entire season...but they must be the OU of Florida high schools because the administrators decided against it.

Why would they take something like that away from the whole team because of an unethical school administration?

[gangrene]

The Miami-Dade superintendent was considering suspending the team's football program for the entire season...but they must be the OU of Florida high schools because the administrators decided against it.

I actually wrote that comment prior to reading and posting the article from the Miami Herald and didn't go back to edit it. From the tidbit publised by the DMN it appeared that the school received no punishment whatsoever. However, the loss of the entire coaching staff, as reported by the Miami Herald, is a pretty severe penalty...much harsher than what OU got.