Cathedral Catholic football player Honor Fa’alave-Johnson provided a heck of a quote in a recent news story about his intention to stay at the San Diego school for his senior season.
It all started with Fa’alave-Johnson’s social media post last week: “I appreciate all the different programs reaching out to my family and I. However, I’ll be staying in San Diego and playing my final season at Cathedral Catholic.”
Asked by the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper about “the different programs reaching out,” Fa’alave-Johnson said he had been contacted by IMG Academy in Florida plus “almost the whole Trinity League.”
According to the Union-Tribune story, Fa’alave-Johnson said those schools “ … try to throw money at you and do crazy stuff.” He said the Trinity League schools offered him free tuition and said some offered travel expenses and housing.
All of that, if true, would be a violation of the CIF Constitution. That’s commonly called “recruiting.” In CIF parlance it’s called “undue influence.”
Here is the CIF Constitution’s long-winded definition of “undue influence” in CIF Bylaw 510: “Undue influence is any act, gesture or communication (including accepting material or financial inducement to attend a CIF member school for the purposes of engaging in CIF competition regardless of the source) which is performed personally, or through another, which maybe be objectively seen as an inducement, or part of a process of inducing a student, or his or her parent(s)/ guardian(s)/caregiver, by or on behalf of, a member school, to enroll in, transfer to, or remain in, a particular school for athletic purposes.).”
That’s a lot to digest there. But it’s easy to digest that what the Cathedral Catholic football player said, if true, could get one or more Trinity League football programs in trouble.
Cathedral Catholic football coach Sean Doyle, an outstanding coach who led the Dons to the CIF San Diego Section Open Division championship and a win over Los Alamitos in the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs, chipped in with, “They’ve been doing that for a lot of years.”
Attempts since Monday to reach Doyle for specifics on which Trinity League schools he was talking about and who represented those schools in the alleged communications with Fa-alave-Johnson were unsuccessful.
A couple of Trinity League schools offered their reactions.
Orange Lutheran’s administration issued a brief statement that said: “Orange Lutheran has not had any communication with this student or his family. We wish him well. As a CIF member school we follow its bylaws to the letter and do not offer athletes incentives or scholarships at Orange Lutheran.”
Servite administration’s statement included its well-wishes to Fa’alave-Johnson and … “The holistic formation of young men is at the core of our mission, and developing a relationship of trust and mutual respect between each student and his teachers and coaches is essential. Offering student-athletes things like relocation expenses and housing can turn the relationship into a transactional one, significantly impeding, if not ruining, our ability to form faith-filled young men. We do not engage in such practices.”
It’s always possible that assistant coaches in any sport, at any school in any league, are out there trying to procure players. The Trinity League is intensely competitive, so it would be no surprise if the league has coaches ignoring the rules. Parents, too, could be telling other kids’ parents, “Hey, if you come to our school you’ll get … “
The allegations from San Diego did not specify which of the Trinity League’s six schools — JSerra, Mater Dei, Orange Lutheran, Santa Margarita, Servite, St. John Bosco — made the offers nor did the allegations name names of school representatives.
That does not mean the allegations are untrue. It does make them unserious.
CIF Southern Section assistant commissioner and spokesman Thom Simmons said the Southern Section would not and could not pursue the allegations before receiving detailed information.
Coaches have long and detailed memories. Some can hold grudges for years. So it would be interesting if a Trinity League football team some day plays Cathedral Catholic in a CIF Southern California Regional playoff game.
NOTES
• Esperanza’s Sammy Sanchez, the only Orange County boy wrestler to win a CIF State championship last season, will likely make his sophomore season debut Saturday in the Esperanza Holiday Classic tournament at Esperanza High. Sanchez has been dealing with a knee issue. He had targeted last Saturday’s Battle for the Belt tournament at Temecula Valley High for his first match of the season, but it was decided that he should wait another week. …
• The Esperanza Holiday Classic is a boys and girls wrestling tournament. It starts Saturday at 9 a.m., with finals around 5 p.m. Some Central Valley teams will be in it, as will be Orange County teams like Canyon, Marina, Westminster and Yorba Linda and CIF Southern Section teams like Bonita, Corona Centennial, San Marino and Temecula Valley. Spectator admission is $15 for adults, $10 for senior citizens and veterans, $5 for children, and children of ages 3 and younger get free admission. …
• Fountain Valley wrestling has a third McDonnell brother, freshman Mason McDonnell, who is ranked 11th in California in the 157-pound division. Khale McDonnell finished second at 215 pounds in last season’s CIF State championships. TJ McDonnell was a state champion at 182 pounds in 2023. …
• Friday is a big day in boys soccer with Canyon playing at Sunny Hills at 3 p.m. Canyon is 12-1-2 overall and 5-0 in the Crestview League, and Sunny Hills is 15-1-2 overall and 2-1 in the league. Also Friday: Mater Dei at Servite and JSerra at Orange Lutheran — the top four teams in the Orange County rankings. …
• Coming up in girls soccer next week is Orange County No. 2 Mater Dei at county No. 1 Santa Margarita. Santa Margarita is 13-0-1 overall and in first place in the Trinity League at 1-0-1. Mater Dei is 12-1-5 overall and 0-0-2 in the league. …
• Corona del Mar’s boys basketball team plays a lot like last season’s Los Alamitos team that won the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship. Like that Los Al team, this season’s CdM team has a variety of scoring options. A few different players will be the team’s leading scorer from one game to the next and they move the ball around quickly. Good defensive group, too. …
• Corona del Mar is No. 10 in the latest CIF-SS boys basketball computer rankings. The top nine teams in the CIF-SS rankings this week are, in order: Sierra Canyon, Redondo Union, St. John Bosco, Harvard-Westlake, Santa Margarita, Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, Centennial of Corona, St. Francis and Damien. If the Open Division selects 10 teams like last year, then Corona del Mar appears headed for the Open Division. …
• Corona del Mar coach Jason Simco wants his team in the Open Division. The bravery and ambition are admirable, but some of those Open Division candidates might be too big and too physically advanced for the Sea Kings. …
• Mater Dei senior guard Luke Barnett made five 3-pointers Wednesday in the Monarchs’ 81-79 victory over Orange Lutheran. That gives him 373 career 3s and puts him ahead of Taylor King for the school 3-point baskets record. …
• King is an assistant coach at JSerra. He is very good at getting kids unfrazzled when things get sideways on the court. …
• Villa Park 6-5 freshman basketball player Jaden Salem is reminiscent of two-time Orange County player of the year Brandon Benjamin when Benjamin was a freshman at Canyon. Salem’s inside moves are not as lethal as Benjamin’s but they are similar, and Salem at this point is a slightly better mid-range shooter than Benjamin was as a freshman. …
• Jim Reames, longtime boys basketball coach at Foothill High School, has died. Reames coached Foothill from 1978 to 1992. He was later an assistant coach at Santa Margarita and was one of the friendliest people in county basketball. A Funeral Mass will take place Feb. 3 at 11 a.m. at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Laguna Woods. It will be followed by burial at Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest and then a Celebration of Life at The Ranch in Laguna Beach starting at approximately 2 p.m. …
• The second of three meetings of the CIF Southern Section Council — the Southern Section’s legislative body that is made up of league representatives — is Tuesday. The Council will get its first look at a proposal that would create CIF State championships for baseball and softball, starting with the 2026-27 season. The proposal will be up for a vote at the Council session in April. Already in place are CIF Southern California and Northern California Regionals, which sometimes qualifying teams withdraw from because the season can already be very long and the softball travel-team season, which is ultra-important for college recruiting, starts right around then.