St. Pius X has been placed on probation by the Missouri State High School Activities Association for the 2017-2018 school year.
The Catholic private school in Crystal City was placed on probation in June because of a bylaw violation by football head coach Jerry Woods and improprieties involving the use of the school’s facilities for a three-on-three basketball summer tournament. Both violations occurred in 2016.
Probation means the school could lose postseason eligibility across all sports if another violation occurs in the current school year.
Woods served a two-game suspension to start the 2017 football season and boys basketball head coach Eric Lawrence is currently serving a five-game suspension.
In November 2016, the MSHSAA Board of Directors convened a peer review committee to investigate the allegations against St. Pius.
Woods was found to have violated association by-law 2.6.2.g (undue influence) after he gave one of his football players handwritten note cards of appreciation to give to a Jefferson High player.
The committee can be called into action if the Board of Directors believes there are possible violations. The committee includes three people from the original investigative committee; an administrator from a member school within the conference of the school filing the complaint; an administrator from the school facing the allegations; and two administrators from the region.
By accepting the coaching suspensions, St. Pius preserved postseason eligibility for its athletics programs.
St. Pius principal Karen DeCosty said she learned of the violations Sept. 29, 2016, after officials from Crystal City and Jefferson high schools filed reports to MSHSAA against St. Pius.
Clint Johnston, superintendent of the Jefferson R-7 School District, said the district filed the complaint after Jefferson football players received the cards from Woods.
“We follow the bylaws regarding undue influence,” Johnston said Monday. “This is the first time I’ve been involved in this kind of circumstance since I’ve been superintendent.”
Crystal City Superintendent Phil Harrison said his school district filed a complaint after a photograph surfaced of an eighth-grade student in the district playing basketball at the three-on-three tournament.
“We spoke to the (MSHSAA) investigative committee, and they spoke to parents and employees from all three districts,” Harrison said Monday. “I have nothing to say about the punishment. The most important thing is the corrective action. I don’t want to see kids hurt. I do want to see the schools involved follow the rules.”
“Yes, we had a couple of unintended violations but it doesn’t mean we’re not in good standing with MSHSAA,” DeCosty said Nov. 30. “We’ve always had a positive relationship with MSHSAA. We’ve always been responsible and done our due diligence. We’re doing what they asked us to do to keep us in good standing.”
I sent a list of questions to Kerwin Urhahn, executive director for MSHSAA, about this matter. In his emailed response, he stated that “The MSHSAA board has a wide range of consequences to utilize – from a reprimand to removal of membership. St. Pius X asked for a lesser penalty be put in place that would not suspend the school from postseason. The board took action to grant the request for a lesser penalty, and placed the school on probation with conditions, which require the head coaches for football and boys basketball to not be allowed to coach in 20 percent of the regular season games.”
Woods got the idea of passing notes to the opposing team’s players after reading about Kansas State University head coach Bill Snyder doing the same thing, DeCosty said.
“Jerry read the article (by Snyder) about when they were finished playing a team, he’d pick out one or two players that challenged his team and he’d send them a thank-you letter for making us better,” she said.
DeCosty said she wants to disprove rumors swirling around the violations. Like many private schools, St. Pius is always under scrutiny – mostly by those who have attended or coached at public schools – for “recruiting” players for athletic purposes.
“We know there have been a lot of rumors,” she said. “It was never, ever, ‘Will you come play for me?’ The problem occurred when (Woods) gave those letters to one of his own players to give to the Jefferson players. We stopped it after that because we didn’t know where things were going to go. But it’s not a practice that needs to stop. We want our kids to write these notes and recognize and be thankful for when skill, drive and passion are there.”
For the time being, St. Pius athletic director Tilden Watson will send notes of appreciation to other athletic directors of his school’s opponents.
“Jerry always tells his players, ‘Win, lose or draw, always thank your opponent,’” Watson said. “If they beat you, they made you better. If you beat them, you should learn something.
“The process of delivery was the problem.”
DeCosty said the rumor that Woods was including St. Pius admissions packets along with the letters to opposing players was false and that she’s well aware of the rules on how to market the school.
Woods has served as head coach at St. Pius for 12 years, making him the longest-tenured head football coach in Jefferson County. The Lancers compete in the I-55 Conference in football and finished 4-6 this season. They haven’t had a winning season since 2014.
When I interviewed Woods in August, he told me he was teaching his players how to be competitive on the gridiron and to be model citizens off the field as well.
“We’re not as focused on wins and losses,” Woods said then. “If our young men do what we ask and carry that over to their relationships with their parents, employers, girlfriends and eventually wives, then we’re doing something right whether we’re 0-10 or 10-0. That’s been my mindset since I’ve been here.”
In my opinion, winning percentage should never be the basis of retaining a high school coach in any sport.
DeCosty said Lawrence volunteered to serve his suspension even though he did not participate in any way in the Hoops for Change three-on-three tournament held Sept. 10, 2016, at St. Pius. The tournament, sponsored by a group called 34 Hoops, was open to players from fifth grade to adults, organized into age groups.
A letter from St. Pius to the parents of students in August stated that a former St. Pius junior varsity boys basketball coach was interviewed during the investigation and that the investigative committee found his responses were not credible.
In a letter St. Pius sent to MSHSAA, school officials conceded “lack of due diligence” in the use of its basketball facilities by the organizer of the tournament. The officials also expressed disappointment that a former member of the basketball staff had shown a “lack of credibility and integrity” during the investigation.
“One of the allegations MSHSAA looked at was that the three-on-three tournament was held in an ‘open gym’ (hosted by the school),” DeCosty said. “We were able to clear that; it wasn’t an open gym hosted by St. Pius. It was a three-on-three tournament and we were letting (tournament organizers) use our facility.
“The coach in question (provided) no sports instruction during the tournament,” DeCosty added. “There were a lot of questions surrounding the coach during the investigation. He was suspected of coaching our players in his program. We’ve never used an ineligible player. We had to continue to clear that right up until the meeting in September (this year).”
Lawrence will miss even more games this season because of his commitment with the Missouri National Guard. He will miss a week this month for duties and will be absent for all of February (including the Class 3 District 3 tournament) for training in St. Louis. Sgt. Lawrence has served in the National Guard for six and a half years and is a chemical equipment repairman.
Training for National Guard units is usually held during the summer, but Lawrence said it’s been moved up to “be prepared for a global conflict by next summer.”
During his absence, Josh Ellsworth will be the head coach and Anthony Lawrence, Eric’s father, will assist.
“I have an obligation, but it’s going to be tough thinking of the seniors who started when I did,” said Lawrence, who’s in his third season in charge. “Not being at the end of their journey will be difficult.”