Channel Islands Coach Involved in NCAA Fraud Investigation : Basketball: First-year girls’ coach has admitted to academic wrongdoing as a men’s assistant at New Mexico State.

Those who hired Chris Nordquist expressed surprise Tuesday that the first-year Channel Islands High girls’ basketball coach is charged by the NCAA of committing academic fraud at New Mexico State.

“I was drinking coffee, eating breakfast, and I turned the page in the sports section and said, ‘Whoa, I think that person is under our employ,’ ” said Bill Studt, superintendent of the Oxnard Union High School District. “The district is going to investigate and appropriate action will be taken.”

Nordquist, 30, was a men’s basketball assistant at New Mexico State for six years until taking administrative leave in March and resigning two months later in the wake of the NCAA investigation. He was hired in July as an English teacher and coach at Channel Islands.

John Triolo, the Channel Islands principal, was similarly startled.

“The only thing I know is what I read in the paper,” he said. “I don’t know what the NCAA investigation involves and I don’t know how the investigation has any impact on his role [at Channel Islands].”

Nordquist, a Rio Mesa High graduate and son of former Moorpark College men’s basketball Coach Al Nordquist, could not be reached for comment.

“Chris made a couple of mistakes in judgment, mistakes many others would have made also,” said Al Nordquist, who this year resigned after 27 seasons as Moorpark coach to become a dean at the school. “If he had it to do again, he probably would have used more wisdom.”

The NCAA on Monday charged Chris Nordquist and another assistant, Gar Forman, with 11 violations regarding correspondence courses New Mexico State players took from the Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God in Lakeland, Fla., and Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., from 1991-93.

Nordquist allegedly wrote and submitted eight English papers for an unnamed player enrolled at Liberty in the summer of 1991 and completed tests for players enrolled in courses at Southeastern in the summers of 1992 and 1993.

Nordquist also has been charged with forging the names of other New Mexico State faculty as proctors during the taking of tests for the correspondence courses.

According to an NCAA letter of inquiry, Nordquist admitted that he administered the tests in his office.

A New Mexico State internal investigation confirmed the charges and the school administration leveled minor sanctions against the basketball program. The school must answer the NCAA’s 24-page letter of inquiry by Dec. 24.

There is no evidence that the fraud involves former Moorpark guard Sam Crawford, who played at New Mexico State from 1991-93.

“It did go down to the wire, but Sam did all his JC work here at Moorpark,” Al Nordquist said.

According to the inquiry, Chris Nordquist cooperated in March with NCAA investigators after initially denying involvement.

Nordquist, formerly New Mexico State’s restricted-earnings coach, is described in the NCAA inquiry as being “under Forman’s direction,” in committing the infractions.

Forman was a full-time New Mexico State assistant who now is head coach at Cedarville (Ohio) College, an NAIA school.

The Dana Ana County, N.M., district attorney’s office has said it will not seek criminal fraud charges because neither Nordquist nor Forman sought monetary gain.

Those who know Nordquist are shocked at the charges.

Dennis Latta, who covers New Mexico State basketball for the Albuquerque Journal, described Nordquist as “quiet, studious and well-liked, someone with a bright future in coaching.”

Triolo, the Channel Islands principal, said the coach made a similar impression in his new job.

“He’s done a fine job in the classroom and we have been looking forward to watching the girls’ basketball team under his direction,” Triolo said.