Committee determines Coronado volleyball team recruited players

Is there a scandal within the Coronado High School varsity volleyball team?

A committee made up of principals and athletic directors are looking into just that and if Coach Raul Lawrence recruited several freshman girls to transfer into his program.

“We knew there might possibly be some problems with some of the existing girls,” said parent Mitch Morgan, whose daughter MacKenna was cut from the Coronado freshman volleyball team, he says to make room for transfers. “One of the club coaches and Coach Lawrence actually were having a discussion regarding keeping his team together and what he actually thought of the girls that were on the team itself. Definitely against UIL rules.”

The committee determined at least eight of 14 freshman transfers received a recruitment email from Lawrence. Lawrence is expected to learn his penalty at the next committee meeting, October 21st.

“It was a group of concerned parents that said, ‘You know what, this needs to stop. Our kids got left out in the cold.'”

It’s unclear how many girls were allegedly recruited by Lawrence.

Morgan gave ABC-7 a packet of information containing several letters from parents, many of them anonymous, saying their daughters were recruited by Lawrence.

“That email was dated January 6th and it was from Coach Lawrence,” said Dr. Christine Brandl, whose daughter Sofia Sifuentes was one of several girls the committee found to be recruited by Lawrence. “I find it’s an embarrassment to the EPISD that they took children out of class and kept them out of school most of the day to debate whether this email was sent or not sent.”

“I don’t think Coach Lawrence is a bad guy,” Morgan said. “I think it’s one of those things where the pressure to win at all costs causes people to do things they shouldn’t.”

The girls found to be recruited are ineligible to play on varsity for a year, but can still play on the freshman and junior varsity teams.

Coach Lawrence or Franklin coach Flo Valdez, who brought the allegations forward, had no comment when asked by ABC-7.