Coach says recruiting has been a problem for decades

Recruiting athletes in high school?

A former El Paso coach tells ABC-7 it happens more than you might think.

Coronado volleyball coach Raul Lawrence now faces penalties after a committee ruled he recruited at least eight freshmen to the school, many from the same club team.

“I would have parents that would come in and talk to me about their kids maybe transferring,” said former Franklin football coach Tony Grijalva, who spent 35 years coaching at El Paso schools and observed recruiting first hand. “To get to the point where you’re going to do some things illegal, to me, that’s carrying it a little too far.”

Grijalva said most of it comes from club teams that want to stay together.

“It all comes from the club teams, that’s why to me it’s more prevalent in volleyball and maybe in basketball,” Grijalva said. “They want to play with their friends and it’s not just here in El Paso, its nationwide.”

A prominent El Paso area soccer coach, whose district would not allow ABC-7 to speak with him on camera, admitted to ABC-7 last week that his son grew up in the Franklin attendance zone. However, he went to Coronado to play soccer with all of his club teammates. In order to get around the UIL rule about not transferring for athletic reasons, he said he took two years of Japanese at Coronado, which is not offered elsewhere.

“The coaches, the coaching circle, coaching community, they pretty have an idea what’s going on,” Grijalva said. “it’s just a matter of getting it out there.”

UIL Deputy Director Jamey Harrison told ABC-7: “Non-school (or club team) participation is a definite factor in many cases related to both recruiting and changing schools for athletic reasons. It’s not always a factor, but it is many times.”

“To be honest with you, I don’t think there’s going to be much done about it,” Grijalva added, “simply because of the fact its really going to be hard to prove. Is this incident going to stop the whole process? I don’t think so.”

Coronado’s Lawrence is expected to learn his recruiting penalty Oct. 21.

Grijalva told ABC-7 club teams staying together often comes from parents not kids. He added the pressure to win at El Paso schools is not a factor. He says you don’t have to break the rules to keep your job.