Ohio High School Athletic Association Interim Commissioner Dave Gray announced on Saturday that several sanctions will be assessed to Massillon Washington High School’s football program for alleged recruiting violations.
The OHSAA investigation involved several student-athletes who were allegedly recruited to attend the school by head coach Nate Moore and other Massillon assistant football coaches and boosters.
In addition to public reprimand, the penalties include a $5,000 fine, probation for three years and the suspension of Coach Moore from coaching the team during the 2016 playoffs if the team qualifies.
The OHSAA does not release names of student-athletes, but one of the student-athletes, identified by The (Massillon) Independent as senior offensive lineman Thayer Munford, has been declared ineligible for the entire 2016-17 school year due to recruiting. Another student-athlete is ineligible for the first half of the 2016 football season due to not meeting an exception to the transfer bylaw.
According to The Independent, Moore and his wife Becca assumed legal custody of Munford in the spring.
“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.”
Among various violations of the OHSAA’s recruiting bylaws were many instances of violations to Bylaw 4-9-4, No. 8, according to the association. The bylaw 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.” According to the OHSAA, Moore and others with Washington High School regularly communicated with and visited a student-athlete who was attending Coach Moore’s previous school, Cincinnati La Salle, and provided extra benefits such as travel to summer camps.
According to the OHSAA, the violations began in fall 2015 when Moore took over as the head coach at Massillon Washington. Representatives of the school and football program met with the OHSAA in May to respond to the allegations of recruiting.
Massillon Schools Superintendent Rik Goodright told The Independent on Friday the district is consulting with attorneys about the possibility of taking legal action.
“We certainly will do whatever we can to clear this up,” Goodright told The Independent. “We’ll do whatever it takes to support our program and our coach.”
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