What happened? We may never know.
It was the best basketball season Pierce College had in decades, with both the men’s and women’s teams heading to the state playoffs and probably going deep in the bracket.
Instead, they were both forced to forfeit all but one of their games because of eligibility forms that were not correctly sent to the Commission on Athletics (COA) in Sacramento.
Admission and Records provides the COA and the Western State Conference with eligibility reports including Form 3, which deals with team eligibility.
They also give weekly reports to the athletic director who provides them to the coaches.
But according to Aviva Kamin, WSC commissioner, three players from the women’s team were missing from Form 3 and the paperwork was not filed in a timely manner for either team.
How is it possible that both basketball teams were eliminated from the playoffs because of forms a school office was responsible for and it doesn’t come naturally to at least investigate a little?
“No one asked me to do any investigation,” said Shelley Gerstl, dean of Admissions and Records. “I am not aware of any errors made by my staff.”
Of course not just one person or department is at fault.
Everyone agrees there were several places where things fell through the cracks or weren’t dealt with on time.
All through the pipeline, nobody noticed the problem.
Bob Lyons, athletic director, hosted a meeting on March 3 to discuss how to avoid future eligibility reporting problems.
Gerstl and the eligibility clerks were there, as well as Pat Croal, the athletic director’s secretary and Claudia Ramirez-Yaglian, counselor for the athletes. No coaches were involved.
The people involved in the meeting are satisfied that the problem has been solved but none of them seem to know exactly what the problem is.
If they do, they aren’t saying.
But how can you fix a problem if it hasn’t truly been identified?
It’s clear that lack of full-time staff is a problem. Lyons said, “We could use more help in terms of staffing.”
He said it would help to have more counseling hours as well as a full-time eligibility clerk.
It looks like Pierce has recognized the validity of Lyons’ statement.
The Roundup learned on Thursday that Lyons has decided to devote all of his time to teaching after the spring semester and that President Robert Garber will be considering making athletic director a full-time position.
But the biggest need, according to Lyons, is for more full-time coaching positions.
All of the coaches, except baseball coach Bob Lofrano, are part-time.
More hours would give coaches more time to deal with the administrative aspects of the job.
The fact remains, the entire basketball season was lost for both teams; a season in which they played their hearts out.
They were harshly punished for a mistake they had no control over.
So, for the next athletic director, here is a suggestion for future paperwork filing:
Have the roster sheet and your copy of Form 3 side-by-side.
Does the form have the same names and information as the roster sheet?
No?
OK, then fill it out.
Don’t have the information necessary?
Call the coach.
What’s his number?
Look in the Pierce Catalog.
Need to change or add a player during the season?
According to COA’s online ‘Form 3’ FAQ:
“To make a change to an existing Form 3, simply add a student or edit a student’s information as you did when you created the form.”
“Don’t forget to press the ‘submit’ button at the end of the season and make sure that the commissioner has reviewed the form by looking for a number ‘2’ on the left-hand side of your screen.”
ANYONE can find this and more information online at the COA Web site.