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By Phil Ray
pray@altoonamirror.com
The request for a temporary injunction barring sanctions imposed by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association on Bishop McCort High School and McCort's wrestling team is now in the hands of a federal judge who is vowing she will decide the issue within a few days.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie L. Haines presiding in Johnstown heard two days of testimony last week and gave attorneys for both sides time to submit legal briefs summing up the testimony.
On Wednesday, Attorney Joshua S. Mazin of Nazaraeth, representing McCort's wrestling coach, William Bassett, and the parents of 15 wrestlers who are barred from postseason competition due to alleged recruiting violations by the school, presented his legal brief to Haines.
He argued the "PIAA had no evidence to establish a causal link between any alleged interaction with student-athletes by Mr. Bassett and their subsequent enrollments at BIshop McCort that would satisfy its definition of 'recruiting.'"
Mazin contended the PIAA held several hearings into the alleged recruiting by Bassett, who is a teacher and coach at McCort, but those hearings elicited no proof Bassett engaged in recruiting.
He stated, "the PIAA's findings by their own terms, require speculation to create causation."
The parents contend the PIAA sanctions will do "irreparable harm" to the students, and they maintain a temporary injunction has a good chance of becoming permanent after a full hearing on the recruiting issue.
Harrisburg attorney Carol Steinour Young, representing the PIAA, submitted her brief Wednesday countering the arguments by Mazin.
"The parents and coach seeking the injunction were required to present facts and law demonstrating that they: one -- would suffer immediate and irreparable harm if this court does not grant the requested relief, and two -- were likely to prevail on the merits of their claims. They failed utterly in this effort. What they presented was a show, not a case," stated the PIAA legal brief.
She explained that the PIAA, in its decision-making, focused on the lack of institutional oversight of the school's wrestling program.
Young continued, "In barring the school from postseason competition, both District 6 and the (PIAA) Board of Appeal focused on the lack of institutional oversight of the school's wrestling program.
"The board properly found that the almost willful lack of oversight and compliance with the fundamental duty of inquiring of transfer students as to whether their change was motivated by athletics was a dereliction of the duty of school oversight of the program," Young stated.
The issue in the McCort case is complicated by the fact that many of the wrestlers who transferred to McCort knew Bassett, and trained under Bassett, before he was hired as a teacher, and later as a coach, at the school.
Bassett met many of the students at a private gym (the Compound) that he owns, and was a volunteer coach for a wrestling club called Ranger Pride Wrestling.
Mazin argued during the hearings last week that 84% of the wrestlers transferred to McCort prior to Bassett's hiring as a teacher in February 2021 or his appointment as wrestling coach in May 2021.
He also emphasized in his legal brief that it is against Pennsylvania law to target and penalize students for recruiting violations.
Young argued no student was targeted for recruiting violations,
"The penalty imposed for recruiting was only on Mr. Bassett, not on any student," she answered.
Judge Haines said she will rule on the temporary injunction request prior to the PIAA's post season wrestling tournament, which begins Feb. 15.