Montclair Prep Hearing Postponed for 3rd Time

A Southern Section hearing on charges against Montclair Prep has been postponed for a third time, this time after the school requested a prehearing meeting for lawyers on both sides to discuss the allegations.

No date has been set for the hearing, which was scheduled for today and Wednesday at Valley Christian High in Cerritos. Previously, the hearing before the section’s executive committee was postponed twice at the Southern Section’s request.

Attorneys for both parties will meet privately today, along with Montclair Prep Principal V.E. Simpson and Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas.

The case against Montclair Prep centers on charges that the school tampered with grades and allowed football players to avoid paying tuition. Also at issue are charges that Montclair Prep staged a phony living arrangement to gain athletic eligibility for four football players in 1985 and illegally recruited former football players Derek and Leland Sparks in 1989.

The investigation stemmed from the transfer last fall of the Sparkses, who left Montclair Prep for Mater Dei in Santa Ana. At an eligibility hearing in September, the uncle of the Sparks cousins charged that the school changed his nephews’ grades and did not charge them tuition.

Simpson has denied the charges and said the school will be cleared of wrongdoing. However, he has also said the school has been negligent in checking eligibility requirements of students who transfer there and has directed Athletic Director Greg Reece to improve the school’s record-keeping procedures for athletes.

In addition, Simpson said Monday that the school would no longer accept boarding students. The Sparks cousins lived in a campus apartment in 1989.