Prep Player on Recruiting Trip Ends Up in Jail for Nine Hours

Royal High quarterback Ryan Fien, the Southern Section Division II player of the year, spent nine hours in an Austin, Tex., jail early Sunday after being arrested as a minor in possession of alcohol.

According to a police report, Fien, who was on a recruiting trip to the University of Texas, was handed a drink by a Longhorn fan in a downtown bar Saturday night. Shortly after, an agent with the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission arrested Fien, another recruit and a Texas freshman on a Class C misdemeanor that is punishable by a fine of as much as $200.

“He (the fan) said, ‘Hey, you’re that quarterback from California, I’d like to buy you a drink,’ ” said Fien, 17, who gave an oral commitment to the Longhorns on Sunday. “I told him I didn’t drink, but he kept insisting. He shoved it at me and I grabbed it because I didn’t want it to spill on my leather coat.

“It’s funny because I’ve taken trips to schools where there was a lot more drinking going on,” added Fien, who also visited Michigan State, Washington and UCLA. “I’m just talking to some girls and ‘boom,’ I’m in jail. It makes me laugh because I wasn’t drinking at all and I was busted.”