Volleyball Violations Revealed : Cal State Fullerton: NCAA rule infractions discovered in athletic department’s inquiry into women’s volleyball program.

An athletic department inquiry has uncovered NCAA rule violations in Cal State Fullerton’s women’s volleyball program, including a student-athlete who spent a night at Coach Jim Huffman’s house and the hiring of two of her teammates to work for a private volleyball team operated by Huffman’s assistant.

Moreover, the university’s volleyball “coaching staff permitted members of the team to utilize the volleyball office phones to make local calls,” also in violation of NCAA regulations, according to a Sept. 24 preliminary report by Fullerton Athletic Director Ed Carroll. However, the eight telephone calls amounted only to $1.16 in toll charges, according to Carroll’s report, a copy of which was obtained by The Times.

Carroll said all the infractions are considered “secondary violations” of NCAA rules and typically result in either private or informal reprimands from the Big West Conference. He said he will make a full report to the conference by late October and that the university also “will take action if it is felt any is needed.”

Big West Commissioner Jim Haney said Monday that “in essence, the amount (of the telephone expense) does not make a difference. The rule is a rule.”

“Yet in evaluating the rule as to the severity of the violation, the time, the frequency, local calls versus long distance are all important,” Haney said. He did not comment on the other allegations, saying that the details have not yet been forwarded by Fullerton officials.

Huffman and his assistant coach, Marlon Sano, said Monday they were unaware at the time that their actions might have violated NCAA regulations. The use of phones and other alleged improper activity has stopped, they said.

Huffman said he has no idea what action might be taken against him or the volleyball program. “It’s not like I was giving them cars and slipping them money,” he said.

Said Sano: “I don’t think anything is really going to come of it.”

The probe, which Carroll described as an “inquiry” and not an “investigation,” began with allegations lodged by a former volleyball team member, whom university sources declined to identify. Huffman said the former player making the allegations was “a kid who was unhappy because the role I wanted her to play wasn’t the role she wanted to play” on the team.

During the course of the inquiry, Huffman volunteered information about the use of team members as paid assistant coaches on Sano’s private club volleyball team, Carroll said.

Meanwhile, Carroll’s inquiry into the unauthorized use of Huffman’s office telephone continues.

A final report to the Big West Conference is expected by late October, Carroll said. “I am not done with my phone research and I anticipate being able to identify additional calls,” Carroll wrote in a memo to Barbara Stone, faculty athletics representative. “However, I firmly believe the total dollars will remain very small.

“Once we are done, the offending student-athletes will be required to reimburse the cost of the toll calls they made,” Carroll wrote.

In an interview Monday, Carroll characterized the telephone violations as “very minor” and the permitting of a player to spend the night at Huffman’s home as a “minimal” infraction. The most serious of the violations, Carroll said, was the hiring last spring of volleyball student-athletes to coach a club team run by Sano.

The student-athletes, whom university officials declined to identify, also were transported to the club team’s tournaments by Huffman and Sano in violation of NCAA rules, Carroll said. But Carroll downplayed the significance of those violations, saying the hiring of student-athletes as assistants on club programs operated by their university coaches is widespread.

Huffman “did not realize that it was a violation of NCAA rules as it is a common practice in California NCAA Division I women’s volleyball programs,” Carroll wrote.

Carroll also found that a volleyball team member was provided a key to Sano’s house in order “to feed his dogs” while Sano and his wife were on vacation.

“Due to problems the player was having with her own housing situation, she spent two nights at coach Sano’s house,” Carroll wrote. “This may be a violation of NCAA rules.”

The same player stayed at Huffman’s house when he and his roommate were home, which violated NCAA rules that permit “no extra benefit” beyond financial aid administered by the college.

Huffman said Monday that it had been a case of “a kid who has got a problem and you’re trying to help them out. Obviously, it won’t happen again.”

Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this story.