Bishop Montgomery forfeits 2025 football season amid ties to booster who paid parents
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Bishop Montgomery has forfeited the remainder of the 2025 football season and reported more rule violations amid statements by a booster about his past activities paying parents of transfer players, the school announced Tuesday night.
Mike Hall will be the interim football coach while the Archdiocese of Los Angeles investigates why five Bishop Montgomery transfer students were declared ineligible for two years by the Southern Section for violating CIF bylaw 202, which involves submitting false information. The school announced it reported additional violations of the CIF transfer policy within the football program and continues to investigate the football program.
“We recognize the gravity of this situation and we are deeply sorry for the lapse in oversight that resulted in violations of CIF-SS regulations,” a letter released Tuesday signed by Bishop Montgomery principal Michele Starkey and school president Patrick Lee read. “We are instituting corrective actions aimed at ensuring compliance and preventing such issues in the future.”
The decision was handed down a day after Brett Steigh, a 1992 Narbonne High graduate, booster, local businessman and gambler, said during an appearance on the “Fattal Factor” podcast that he paid parents to secure transfers for Narbonne and St. Bernard before currently “helping” Bishop Montgomery. Narbonne in Harbor City is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, while the Archdiocese of Los Angeles operates St. Bernard in Playa del Rey and Bishop Montgomery in Torrance.
While name, image and likeness policies allow for payment of players, recruiting transfer athletes and paying their parents as much as $50,000 remains a violation of the California Interscholastic Federation’s undue influence rules.
“I ain’t doing nothing that others aren’t doing,” Steigh said, alleging Orange County private schools, including national powerhouse Mater Dei, paid to secure transfer players.
A Mater Dei spokesperson has not yet responded to a request for comment in response to the allegation.
Steigh said he recruited players in 2018 and 2024 to Narbonne without the knowledge of the head coaches while paying parents to move. Both times, Narbonne was sanctioned by the City Section for rule violations.
If Bishop Montgomery were to cancel the remainder of its season, players on the team could seek hardship waivers to play elsewhere.
He said he met with St. Bernard President Carter Paysinger in 2020 and agreed to support that school after former Narbonne coach Manuel Douglas took over the program. Douglas told The Times on Tuesday the payments reached close to $1 million between funding tuition for incoming freshman football players and improvements at the school. Douglas said school administrators were aware of the contributions.
Douglas and Steigh became the subject of FBI and IRS investigations after Douglas failed to report donations from Steigh and didn’t pay taxes on them. Steigh said they didn’t face any charges. Douglas resigned in 2020 and St. Bernard shut down its football program in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Steigh said he has now been “supporting” Bishop Montgomery with the knowledge of Lee.
Bishop Montgomery’s football program had 24 transfers during the offseason. After five Bishop Montgomery transfers were declared ineligible by the Southern Section, the school announced on Saturday it had fired head football coach Ed Hodgkiss.
Bishop Montgomery received numerous football transfers in the offseason. The Southern Section has reviewed the paperwork and declared five players ineligible.
In a text message to The Times, Lee denied any connection to Steigh.
“What he said was an outright lie,” Lee said. “Neither the principal nor I ever met this man, spoke to him, emailed him, texted him — nothing.”
The City and Southern Section commissioners are aware of the statements Steigh made during the podcast, with one telling The Times they are reviewing them.
Steigh said he agreed to appear on reporter Tarek Fattal’s podcast because he felt it was wrong that Hodgkiss — the Bishop Montgomery football coach — was fired.
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“Pat knew what the deal was and now he’s backing away. Not fair,” Steigh said, referring to the Bishop Montgomery president.
Hodgkiss told The Times he has been advised by legal counsel not to answer any questions.
A Bishop Montgomery parent wrote in a letter to The Times that football transfers joining the program were given preferential treatment.
“Returning players were demoted, excluded from trips or quit,” the parent wrote. “Archdiocesan Catholic values appear secondary to short-term athletic exposure. Despite my June outreach to the school, no reply ever came.”
In the spring, The Times asked Starkey, the Bishop Montgomery principal, if she was aware of any involvement by Steigh in Bishop Montgomery’s program. She said no.
When Steigh was asked during the podcast why he would risk players’ eligibility by getting involved at Bishop Montgomery, he said he felt previous administrations he worked with didn’t have the backbone to succeed at recruiting players.
“They told us it wouldn’t be ... sorry I shouldn’t say that,” Steigh said of Bishop Montgomery’s leadership. “They’re basically supporting to win right now.”
When pressed for more details, Steigh said, “I can’t comment on any players at Bishop Montgomery.”
He said he has now decided to retire from supporting high school football programs.
Steigh said he previously was a traditional booster at Narbonne, making donations to help pay for helmets, uniforms and a washing machine.
“In 2018, I decided to play the game that everyone else was playing,” Steigh said. “The head coach at the time did not want to do this. It was all on me. I lied to him. These players just showed up. Why? I wanted to compete with the private schools. I felt it was unfair public schools being left behind.”
Four coaches of Marine League schools forfeited games against Narbonne last season while demanding a City Section investigation into whether transfers were paid to play for the school.
“All these rumors through all these years, it’s all true,” Steigh said. “It was all me.”
