Christian Brothers Academy is suing the New York State Public High School Athletic Association and Section II to overturn the school’s punishment for a recruiting violation.
The suit, filed Thursday by the firm Girvin & Ferlazzo in Albany County Supreme Court, claims the decision in January to put the CBA athletics program on three years of probation was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, lacking a sound basis in reason, and lacking a foundation in fact, insofar as they (a) were not supported by the facts or the law; and (b) were based upon a previously held bias by Respondents against Petitioner CBA.”
All 21 members of the Section II Athletic Council voted Jan. 26 to punish CBA for violating the NYSPHSAA’s Recruitment and Undue Influence rule. It was the second such violation against CBA, the previous one coming in 2019, though CBA says in the suit that the 2019 issue “did not establish facts that demonstrated a violation of the Rule.” That instance involved another team at CBA, not the football team.
In addition to the probation, the CBA varsity football team isn’t allowed to compete in a Week 0 game this fall.
The NYSPHSAA denied CBA’s appeal on March 14. The suit seeks to annul, vacate and set aside the NYSPHSAA’s ruling.
“We have no comment at this time because of the pending litigation,” NYSPHSAA executive director Dr. Robert Zayas said.
The violation in question involved a claim last year that a CBA junior varsity football coach texted the father of a student attending Saratoga.
CBA said it was unaware of any communication between the coach and the student’s father and that the student had neither applied nor enrolled at CBA.
“Petitioner CBA did not ‘influence’ or attempt to ‘influence’ a student to transfer from one school to another,” the lawsuit states. “The Junior Varsity Coach did not…
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