More Bad News For Taft – Are They Running a Dirty Program?
Taft High School
It’s funny, I am not a huge football fan per se, but I do follow it. I have never been that into high school football, but I am trying to come up to speed on it for the completeness of the community aspect of this blog.
I cam across a story on Monday in the LA Times Sports Blog about a Westlake player named Michael Bercovici who transferred to Taft. The article had this line in it that caught my eye, “He’s living in an apartment next to Taft.” I sat on it at the time because I wanted to see how it would play out. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to analyze that and realize that someone – perhaps his parents, perhaps not – is paying for an apartment for this kid to most likely pretend to live in so that he’s eligible to attend Taft.
Well it looks like I wasn’t the only one who smelled a dead fish on this one, because according the the LA Times Sports Blog, City Section Commissioner Barbara Feige declared Bercovici ineligible for yesterday’s game against Serra of Gardena.
I suggest you guys check out the Blog entry on the LA Times site, but for the sake of my analysis I’m going to quote it here:
Michael Bercovici, a junior quarterback who transferred from Westlake Village Westlake to Woodland Hills Taft on Monday, was not cleared to play for the Toreadors on Friday because City Section Commissioner Barbara Fiege is still determining whether he has a valid change of residence while reviewing whether there was athletic motivation in his transfer.
It’s the latter that could leave him ineligible for this season. Westlake officials are not expected to challenge his transfer, but they have to answer questions from Fiege, and when it comes to asking about the quarterback competition he was in with junior Nick Isham, it might become clear that Bercovici had lost out on winning the starting job, then suddenly left.
– Eric Sondheimer
I find it pretty surprising that someone would transfer from a high school in a compeltely different county to another just to play high school football, but a friend of mine tells me this is very common. Starting in a quality high school program can mean the difference between playing at a good college, making it into the NFL, etc. etc.
But, either way, it’s against the rules, and since it’s pretty transparent, Bercovici should probably be declared ineligible for the season. Doh.
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4 Responses to “More Bad News For Taft – Are They Running a Dirty Program?”
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Wow, calling a program dirty because a kid lives up the street??? Maybe it is “convenient” that there is an apartment complex up the street from Taft. But if a parent of a child has been living there since there student was in 7th or 8th grade and they attended Taft, would you still consider this “pretty transparent?” Have you or anyone else gone and visited the apartment to SEE that the student lives there? If not, here goes this blog spreading rumors again…Accusing somebody of paying for a player’s place to move is just ridiculous, especially when there is very little money in the Taft program, have you ever noticed how poor the field and facilities are there? They should definitely be doing something if they have the kind of money that you infer they do. I for one as a Taft Alum know that program doesnt get any type of financial support that you would expect a quality program to get. Having been around the taft program in one capacity or another for the past 15 years, I must say that the current staff is doing a great job. Now that young coach just needs to win a city title, or he will never escape the Starr shadow.
Taft Alum, okay, let me ask you a question. It’s very possible, even probable his family is paying for the apartment. Do you think they are living there with him? For real? Have YOU visited to see? When you were in High School did you live 20 miles away from your parents so you could attend a different high school to play football?
And hey, at the end of the day I don’t really care. But, if I see that something is BS, I’m gonna call it. So, on Bercovici, I call BS. And so does the City Section. If anything changes with that, I will report it.
Have a good weekend!
no, I have not visited myself to see…Thats not my job : ) But according to the athletic director and the administration at Taft, THEY HAVE…and yes, the kid lives there WITH HIS FAMILY, he doesnt live there by himself. I will agree with you on that, if the kid lived there by himself, then I would question a lot on this, and I would question the ethics involved by the family doing it. Last but not least, no I didnt live 20 miles away from the school, but then again the whole “open enrollment” rule within the entire city section means that everyone is asking for problems like these. I just dont like seeing only my former school getting drug through the mud about it.
Have a great weekend.
@Girard