Attorney for fired Bishop Montgomery coach

An attorney representing fired Bishop Montgomery High coach Ed Hodgkiss says in a assertion his preliminary investigation signifies that an unidentified college official and others have been making an attempt “to create a team that could compete” with powers Mater Dei and St. John Bosco.

“The way it appears they were attempting to accomplish this was to deploy the ‘If you can’t beat them join them’ strategy. And so, they did,” according to a assertion from attorney Darren M. Richie, who represents Hodgkiss.

Hodgkiss had been a soccer coach and bodily schooling trainer at Bishop Montgomery for 15 years until he was fired last week. He also served as co-athletic director. Five Bishop Montgomery soccer gamers who have been switch college students have been declared ineligible by the Southern Section for violating CIF bylaw 202, which includes offering false info. Bishop Montgomery has 24 switch college students this yr, and a booster who said he had paid dad and mom to transfer their sons to Narbonne confirmed he also was serving to Bishop Montgomery.

Earlier this week, Bishop Montgomery announced it was forfeiting its remaining soccer video games after self-reporting violations to the Southern Section.

The attorney, who also can be representing some of the ineligible gamers, said in the assertion, “From all I have reviewed and independently verified, each and every transfer possesses legitimate documentation because they indeed physically moved. … For anyone that follows high school football, their move was not athletically motivated. Those know that generally their football program was not mentioned in the same breath as top of the heap.”

The Southern Section declined remark, saying the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has an ongoing investigation.

In another development, Bishop Montgomery principal Michele Starkey has resigned as president of the Camino-Del Rey Athletic Assn.