Morningside’s Franklin Fired as Athletic Director

Carl Franklin was fired Monday as Morningside High’s athletic director, three weeks after the Monarchs were stripped of their 1991 Southern Section Division VIII football title for playing an ineligible athlete.

Morningside Principal Liza Daniels relieved Franklin from the position he had held since 1985. Daniels, who could not be reached for comment, told a local newspaper that Franklin’s dismissal was not a punitive decision and was based on a need for change in the athletic department.

Franklin will continue to coach the boys’ basketball team.

Franklin declined to comment on the reason he was given for his dismissal, but said he should not be blamed for Morningside having to forfeit its first Southern Section football title.

The Monarchs were placed on probation by the Southern Section for playing defensive lineman Stacy Maxwell last season. Maxwell had turned 19 before Sept. 1 of last year, making him too old to compete in interscholastic athletics. He was also academically ineligible and had violated transfer rules.

Maxwell gained eligibility by providing Morningside with fraudulent records. The school did not obtain Maxwell’s official transcript from his previous school, Long Beach Wilson, until February and did not discover his actual age until last spring. At that time, Morningside informed the Southern Section that an apparent rules violation had occurred.

Franklin said he was not involved in granting eligibility to Maxwell.

“My involvement was absolutely none,” he said. “The issue with Stacy Maxwell’s ineligibility was based on being too old. Being athletic director, there’s no way I would know he was too old. I wouldn’t have access to that. (Daniels) says that too.”

A Morningside coach who requested anonymity said Daniels is using Franklin as a scapegoat because she failed to properly oversee Morningside’s attendance office.

“I thought (Franklin’s firing) was a bush move to keep her nose clean,” the coach said. “She doesn’t want to take the full blame for what happened.

“She’s the first in the chain of command. Anybody who has to register or check out of school has to go through her. . . . Athletic administrators have nothing to do with students checking into school.”

Franklin is the second athletic director in the Inglewood Unified School District to be relieved of his duties this year. Rick Amadio was not rehired as Inglewood High’s athletic director after the football team was placed on probation for playing three academically ineligible transfers last season.

Amadio said he considered himself a scapegoat for Inglewood’s problems.

“It doesn’t seem to me like the athletic director should be the person to blame,” said Franklin, who has been replaced by Barry Slocum, head of the Morningside Social Science Department and an assistant football coach.

In the case of transfer students, Franklin said he normally submits the student’s name for athletic eligibility by having the school’s counselors check the student’s grades. Franklin said he was never told that Maxwell failed to meet Morningside’s academic requirements for participation in extracurricular activities.

“At some point I’ll be vindicated,” Franklin said. “People at school know that I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

In an effort to prevent future eligibility problems, Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas and Associate Commissioner Dean Crowley conducted a workshop Tuesday at Morningside to address the issue of athletic eligibility with Monarch coaches. Franklin said the workshop should prove beneficial in avoiding future problems.

“Now it’s pretty clear,” he said. “I think you’ll see less incidents of people not knowing (the rules).”