The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced Saturday that it is penalizing the Massillon High School football team for recruiting violations.
OHSAA Interim Commissioner Dave Gray announced the decision via an email.
The OHSAA said its investigation involved several football players who were recruited to attend Massillon by its coach, Nate Moore, along with assistant football coaches and booster club members. In addition to a public reprimand, the penalties include a $5,000 fine, probation for three years through the end of the 2018-2019 school year and the suspension of Moore from coaching the Tigers in the 2016 playoffs if the team qualifies.
The OHSAA does not release names of student-athletes, but one of the players has been identified as senior offensive lineman Thayer Munford, according to a report in the Massillon Independent. Munford has been declared ineligible for the entire 2016-2017 school year due to recruiting. Another unidentified student-athlete is ineligible for the first half of the 2016 football season due to not meeting an exception to the transfer bylaw.
“The OHSAA and our member schools take the recruiting bylaws very seriously,” Gray said in a prepared statement. “This is an opportunity for Massillon Washington to learn from its mistakes and take a leadership role as one of Ohio’s most historically successful football programs. If further violations occur while the school is on probation, the school’s membership in the OHSAA is in jeopardy.”
Munford transferred to Massillon after playing at Cincinnati La Salle, where Moore previously coached. The Independent reported that Moore and his wife, Becca, had assumed legal custody of Munford this past spring.
Among various violations of the OHSAA’s recruiting bylaws were many instances of violations of Bylaw 4-9-4, No. 8, which reads, “If a coach leaves a school to pursue a coaching opportunity at another school, the coach shall refrain from any communication with any students at his or her former school.”
The OHSAA said Moore and others at Massillon regularly communicated with and visited a student-athlete and provided extra benefits such as travel to summer camps. The Independent reported that Munford is the player.
Munford, who is 6-foot-6 and 325 pounds, helped La Salle win the past two Division II state championships over Nordonia in 2014 and Perry in 2015. Moore coached Munford as a sophomore on the 2014 La Salle team and then moved on to Massillon.
Munford has college scholarship offers from Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, Cincinnati, Indiana, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Iowa State, Miami (Ohio), Pittsburgh, Memphis, Maryland, Central Florida, Temple, Purdue, Rutgers, Louisville and Penn State.
The OHSAA said the violations began in the fall of 2015 when Moore took over at Massillon. Representatives of the school and football program met with the OHSAA in May to respond to the allegations of recruiting.
“We have a ruling,” Massillon Superintendent Rik Goodright told the Independent. “Certainly, we’re aware of what that is and it doesn’t make us happy. We certainly will do whatever we can to clear this up. We’ll do whatever it takes to support our program and our coach.”
Moore is permitted to coach the Tigers in preseason practices and scrimmages and during the regular season in practices and games.
Goodright told the Independent that he checked with the OHSAA because “we had some kids we were checking the eligibility on. We were just wanting to make sure we were doing things correctly, and so we made a phone call, and during one of those phone calls, the OHSAA mentioned that they did want to talk to us.”
Even with Munford ineligible to play, Massillon will still have three senior offensive linemen who have committed to play college football on scholarship — Malcolm Robinson (Purdue), Chris Anthony (Kent State) and Vincent McConnell (Toledo).
“We have every intention of clearing our name,” Goodright told the Independent. “We have a proud program. We have a program that’s under a microscope all the time for whatever the reason. We follow the rules, and we have every intention of clearing our name.”
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the #ABJVarsity high school blog at www.ohio.com/preps.