Beasley’s La Cañada homecoming hits snag
About the only thing certain in the case of Loyola High football transfer Drake Beasley is that the incoming senior running back is intending and hoping to play his final high school season at La Cañada High.
Whether or not that actually happens remains to be seen.
Beasley started practicing with the Spartans “about a week and a half ago,” according to second-year La Cañada Coach Ryan Zerbel, after leaving Loyola and enrolling at La Cañada on Aug. 8. According to the Los Angeles Times’ Eric Sondheimer, Beasley was last in practice at Loyola on Aug. 2.
Since then, Beasley filed transfer paperwork with the CIF Southern Section office that included an assertion of a valid change of address. Without a change of address, “a student may not be eligible to participate at the varsity level if there is evidence the move was athletically motivated or the student enrolled in that school in whole or part for athletic reasons,” CIF-SS Bylaw 206.C notes.
According to Sondheimer, on Saturday, Loyola High Coach Marvin Sanders confirmed that his school was contesting that Beasley’s transfer was because of “undue influence.”
The CIF-SS website lists Beasley’s status as “under review” for 2016-17, which means the Southern Section will conduct its own independent investigation while La Cañada will also investigate and counter Loyola’s claim.
CIF-SS Bylaw 200 states that, “the principals shall verify the athletic eligibility of a student who has transferred to another school when requested to do so by an administrator from the second school.”
When asked about supposed undue influence, Zerbel, a former middle school principal, chaffed at the idea.
“I can see if we’re some sort of football factory or powerhouse,” said Zerbel, whose team finished 4-6 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time in three years. “I just don’t understand why anyone would think we would go after anyone. That’s not the way it works here.”
Beasley is not new to the La Cañada Flintridge area and starred for the La Cañada Gladiators youth football team, which was then coached by current Spartans varsity assistant coach Jason Sarceda.
The last three years, Beasley has played at Division I Loyola, a member of the formidable Mission League. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound back is coming off a season in which he rushed for 1,647 yards and 17 touchdowns and earned an All-Mission League first-team selection.
Beasley is a Rivals.com three-star recruit and has interest from eight Division I programs, including UCLA and Cal Berkeley.
While acknowledging the obvious added benefit of a player like Beasley, Zerbel contends his team was prepared to start the season long before the transfer walked on campus.
“He’s a special player for sure,” Zerbel said, “but it’s not like we tailored our whole offense around him. We had a blueprint for success before Drake was here and he knows that, too. He knows he’ll be just another player here at La Cañada and he’s fine with that.”
CIF-SS Director of Communications Thom Simmons is out of the office until Thursday and could not be reached for comment in regards to La Cañada or Loyola’s paperwork or the length of the process.
When asked how long he expected it would be before the matter was resolved, Zerbel threw his hands in the air.
“Honestly, I don’t know, I hope quickly,” Zerbel said. “We’d love to have him, but that’s all out of my hands. I don’t want to comment anymore about this until the matter is resolved. We have to be fair to ourselves and to Drake and his family.”
Beasley practiced with La Cañada on Tuesday afternoon on the team’s brand new artificial turf, which is set be christened Thursday morning. The Spartans have a scrimmage Friday at home against San Gabriel at 6:30 p.m. before opening the regular season on Aug. 26 at Hawthorne.
While there’s been talk of distraction from the outside, on the blistering field there’s hardly any.
“Drake is a great guy, he’s a great person,” La Cañada senior running back Tyler Breneman said. “We both do what we do out here. We’re both running backs and I respect what he does so much because I do it.
“It’s hard to go out there being a running back and knowing you’re going to get hit every time. It doesn’t change what I do and I don’t change we what he does. We do what we do.”
