Charges Issued Against Inglewood : High schools: Football program is alleged to have recruited players and used ineligible athletes.

Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas said Wednesday that his office will conduct a hearing to review allegations against the Inglewood High football team for illegal recruiting and using ineligible athletes last season.

Thomas attended a meeting Wednesday morning at Torrance High in which administrators from Bay League schools heard the allegations, including:

* Illegal recruiting by an Inglewood equipment manager.

* Playing a transfer who had already completed four years of high school.

* Playing a transfer who had all Fs on his June and summer report cards.

There are also allegations that a transcript was fraudulently altered to allow an ineligible athlete who transferred from Hawthorne to compete on the Inglewood football team.

“They are extremely serious allegations,” Thomas said. “We’re going to review all the materials submitted.”

Thomas said an open hearing will be held in “three to four weeks” at the Southern Section office in Cerritos to allow the section’s executive committee to review the case.

Inglewood Principal Ken Crowe, who did not attend Wednesday’s meeting at Torrance, denied the allegations.

“None of it is true,” he said. “The students who participate in all of our athletic programs are scrutinized very closely and are eligible according to our (school) board policies, which are in keeping with the CIF’s policy.”

However, Crowe acknowledged that Antrero Fuller, a transfer from Leuzinger, played football for Inglewood last season despite the fact he was academically ineligible and a fifth-year high school student.

The reason for this, Crowe explained, was that Fuller’s transcripts from Leuzinger were not received by Inglewood until after the football season had started.

“We make requests for student transcripts,” Crowe said. “If the feeding school does not send a transcript, we do not have accurate information for the student. We cannot penalize the student.

“When we received his transcripts, he was pulled from competition. He only played in one or two games.”

Lester Church, a transfer from Hawthorne, played for Inglewood and earned All-Bay League honors as a defensive back last season. But Hawthorne contends Church never should have been allowed to play because he received all Fs on his last two report cards before transferring.

Crowe said a transcript received by Inglewood shows that Church was eligible upon his transfer from Hawthorne. But the authenticity of the transcript has been questioned.

Told that Church reportedly transferred to Inglewood with failing grades, Crowe said, “We don’t have a record of that at all.”

Asked if Church’s transcript could have been altered, Crowe said: “I don’t want to speculate. I do know it came from Hawthorne. We have a record of his transcript that is signed by an administrator from Hawthorne.”

Crowe said the charges against Inglewood’s football program could be inspired by jealously. The Sentinels were 5-5 last season under first-year Coach Angelo Jackson, the first time in several seasons they did not have a losing record.

“I think a lot of the schools have been envious of our success,” Crowe said. “We hired a coach who has done a tremendous job in turning our program around. We are also happy that a number of our athletes received (college) scholarships.”

Running back Na’il Benjamin was the Sentinels’ top player and signed with California. He played for Inglewood last season after transferring from St. Monica, where Jackson had previously coached.

Rico Perez, identified as an Inglewood equipment manager by Crowe, has been accused of illegally contacting players from other high schools in an effort to get them to transfer to Inglewood. The allegations center on students from Leuzinger, where Perez was previously employed.

Crowe said the allegations involving Perez were news to him.

“All I know is that our staff here has acted in good faith,” Crowe said. “We have followed procedure.”