Immokalee athletics pays a stiff price

The Immokalee High School football team is barred from the playoffs next season, the boys soccer team is barred for two seasons and the school must forfeit two district soccer titles and one district football title.

That was the punishment the Florida High School Athletic Association handed out to the school Wednesday for using three over-age student-athletes.

The letter of consequences came to Immokalee via fax and certified mail Wednesday. Collier schools Assistant Superintendent Eric Williams also received a copy of the letter.

Immokalee has 10 business days to appeal the FHSAA’s ruling, either the punishment as a whole or the severity of the punishment. The earliest the FHSAA Board of Directors can hear the appeal is its September meeting.

The letter signed by FHSAA Commissioner John Stewart stated that Immokalee used three students — 30-year-old Blandel Jean, 23-year-old Josh Jean-Mary and 20-year-old Sinel Ulysse — who were over the maximum age limit for participation, 19 years, 9 months. The letter stated that the school knew Jean-Mary was over-age in October 2005, but didn’t report it until May 2006 and didn’t initiate an investigation into other over-age students when it found out about Jean-Mary.

That, Stewart said Wednesday, led to the punishment’s severity.

“I think a key factor was that the (Immokalee Principal Manny Touron) was made aware in October and did not go back and check the records,” Stewart said. “That could have been a flashing light to someone responsible for that to look at all the birthdates of the participants.”

Photo by DAVID AHNTHOLZ, Daily News file photo

Immokalee's Blandel Jean celebrates his goal with coaches Manny Touron and Frantz Matheus during the second half of their Class 4A regional quarterfinal game with Estero in Immokalee in February 2006. The goal gave Immokalee a 2-0 lead in the game, which they won 4-0.

Because of the violations, the FHSAA ruled that Immokalee will:

-- Have its soccer team placed on two seasons of restrictive probation, starting immediately, and barred from participating in the playoffs or any other preseason or postseason contest.

-- Have its football team placed on restrictive probation for the 2006 season, and barred from participating in the playoffs or any other preseason or postseason contest, including its 2007 spring game.

-- Notify schools by letter that their teams played against ineligible Immokalee players and that Immokalee must forfeit those contests. The school also must return the 2005 district football trophy, the 2005-06 district soccer trophy, 2004-05 district soccer trophy and the 2003-04 district soccer runner-up trophy to the FHSAA.

-- Face a $3,000 fine — $1,000 for each ineligible player — and costs of the investigation, which are undetermined as of yet.

-- Receive a letter of censure and warning against further violations.

Jean-Mary and Ulysse played only soccer, while Jean was a backup kicker for the 2005 football team, appearing in five games.

The two district soccer titles and district football title are declared vacant, and official FHSAA records will be adjusted to reflect Immokalee’s participation in the three soccer and one football state playoff series as being vacated. Both the football and boys soccer teams reached their respective regional championship games this past year.

According to a report by FHSAA investigator Ron Balasz, Immokalee’s school resource officer, Cpl. Josh Pence, informed Touron that Jean-Mary was 23 years old. Jean-Mary had played for Touron, also the assistant soccer coach, in the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons, and Touron pulled Jean-Mary’s cumulative file and found that was so.

The report states that Immokalee did not report anything in 2005 because Jean-Mary no longer played soccer and there was no violation to report.

Pence then learned in April, after asking for Jean’s identification, that Jean was 30 years old. A birth certificate on file provided conflicting information, but Jean’s homeland security card showed he was 30. Touron reported that violation and, in subsequent investigation of other over-age athletes, found that Ulysse shouldn’t have played soccer after Dec. 15, 2005, the day he reached 19 years, 9 months, the age limit under FHSAA policy.

Stewart said he was extremely surprised at the ages of Jean-Mary and Jean.

“They were severely over-age, not just barely over-age,” he said.

According to the report, Balasz asked Touron if the revelation about Jean-Mary caused the school to be wary of any other over-age athletes and if it investigated the issue after the October 2005 incident. Touron told Balasz that he didn’t check any further at that time.

The report stated that Immokalee school officials admitted their mistakes in checking for over-age students and insisted there were no intentional violations.

“In my observations and discussion with the administration,” Balasz wrote, “it is obvious that the school needs to have a better handle on their record keeping and eligibility process. The fact that they have such a large immigrant population should make them much more cautious regarding birth certificates and visas.”

Touron, who has stepped down as assistant soccer coach, declined comment Wednesday, referring all questions to the school district’s central office. Immokalee football coach John Weber declined comment, saying he was asked by his supervisors to do so.

The Immokalee situation caused the FHSAA to immediately review its policies on international student eligibility. In investigating the cases of these over-age students, the association found that Immokalee, all other Collier high schools and high schools in several other counties hadn’t been filing the necessary EL4 forms that the FHSAA requires for international student eligibility purposes.

Collier County schools debated the FHSAA’s interpretation of “international students” as it pertained to immigrant students. Neither of the two visas required on the EL4 forms are issued to immigrant students and Collier said national law prohibited schools from asking about a student’s immigration status.

The FHSAA decided at its Board of Directors meeting last week to revise the international student policy, possibly adding a category for immigrant students.

“It is important that everyone understand that the FHSAA doesn’t want to declare immigrant students ineligible,” Stewart said in a release issued Wednesday, “but we do want to make sure that ineligible immigrant students are declared ineligible.”

Williams said in a statement issued Wednesday that the district was pleased the FHSAA decided not to assign any penalties relating to EL4 forms and Immokalee or any other Collier County high school.

“We greatly appreciate the fact that the FHSAA plans to revisit Policy 17 (regarding international student-athletes) in order to provide greater clarity and guidance,” Williams said.

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Staff writer Katherine Lewis contributed to this report.