Mater Dei Player Retains Eligibility

Southern Section officials ruled Thursday that senior football player Kelvin Millhouse, who transferred to Mater Dei from Fountain Valley this summer, will retain his eligibility.

After nearly two hours of testimony from both Fountain Valley and Mater Dei officials at the section’s Cerritos office, the three-person panel led by Liberty Christian Principal Clark Stephens decided there was no “clear-cut evidence” of outside pressure to get Millhouse to transfer.

“I’m very happy,” said Millhouse, who can now play in Mater Dei’s game Saturday against Clovis West. “I knew we [he and his family] hadn’t done anything wrong.”

When a student transfers to another school by means other than open enrollment, he or she is ineligible to compete in varsity sports for a year. According to state CIF policy, a student loses eligibility if the transfer is found to be solely for athletic reasons.

Fountain Valley Principal Gary Ernst had refused to sign Millhouse’s open enrollment transfer request in July after receiving information that Millhouse was reportedly being coaxed to play football at Mater Dei by J.R. Patterson, a neighbor of Millhouse’s whose son plays on the Mater Dei team.

Millhouse’s mother, Janice, testified she wanted to enroll her son in a private school to improve his grades.