Estero soccer coach: Forfeiting games OK, but probation goes too far

John Robinson sounds like most of his peers when discussing the penalties handed to the Immokalee football and soccer programs Wednesday.

The eighth-year Estero High boys soccer coach said he thinks the impact on 2006-07-08 — no postseason for football this year, for soccer the next two — was too harsh.

As for 2005-06, though?

The Indians got what they deserved.

“They cheated and got caught — you have to pay the consequences,” said Robinson, who saw his Wildcats’ season end, 4-0, in a regional quarterfinal to an Immokalee team that fielded two ineligible players Feb. 2.

“I’m not too happy they have to be penalized the next two seasons, because I think they learned their lesson and in the future this won’t be a problem. But you do something wrong, you pay, and that’s what happened.”

Thirty-year-old Blandel Jean had a goal and two assists in that Indians win, which, as per the Florida High School Athletic Association’s ruling, will be wiped from the record books.

Robinson’s team — which ended the season 12-8-4 — can now claim a pseudo-berth in the Class 4A Sweet 16, a fact that, as the coach noted on Wednesday, isn’t making a last-game loss for his seven seniors any easier to swallow.

“I would have liked to have played an Immokalee team that was fair, or legal, or legitimate, to get a fair outcome,” he said. “We didn’t ... It’s frustrating, but you’ve got to go on. Hopefully, we’ll schedule them again next year.”

Several local football coaches, meanwhile, said they sympathized with Immokalee coach John Weber, whose team had to forfeit their district title for using Jean as a kicker in five games last fall.

Naples coach Bill Kramer was among them, but the Golden Eagles coach pulled no punches as for what Immokalee’s probation could mean for the rest of Class 3A-District 14.

“Obviously, it’s a different road without Immokalee,” said Kramer, whose team lost to their rivals last season, 35-14. “I haven’t had enough time to really assess it, but if you told anybody in the state that they don’t have to get through Immokalee to get into the playoffs, that’s going to be an easier road than it would have been.”

Still, Kramer doesn’t expect the Indians to lie down this fall, either.

“John’s an incredible motivator and he’s played the ‘us-against-the-world’ thing to the hilt. I know he’ll do it even more so now,” he said. “You know those kids in the community are going to rally around him, so Immokalee will probably be tougher than they would have been. I also doubt he’ll have one kid that will want to transfer from that program.”

Lely football coach Chris Metzger said he can’t see Immokalee players transferring because “that’s such a tight-knit community,” adding that the issue of false documents and illegal players likely isn’t confined to Southwest Florida.

“People look at our country and see what it’s built on, and they want to come here,” Metzger said. “It’s a country-wide thing where you have to look into this, and this really could have happened to anybody. They had false documents, and John didn’t have a clue about that. All these kids were up to speed about (what they were doing), and that’s why I feel for Coach Weber, the program and the community.”

Immokalee High football players declined to comment Wednesday.