The Katy baseball team hoped its next game would be another step toward the playoffs. But making the playoffs is now out of the question.
The 19-6A Executive Committee unanimously voted Friday that senior Katy baseball players Hayden Baker and Grant Jackman violated the UIL amateur athletic rule when they were paid to help coach a local Little League baseball team.
The executive committee also unanimously voted for the minimum penalty, which is forfeiture of games from Feb. 25 to April 11. Those forfeited games will take what was a Katy baseball team in playoff contention out of the postseason.
In Section 441 (a), the UIL rule states that an athlete is not an amateur received money or other valuable consideration for teaching or participating in a League sponsored school sport.
Baker and Jackman’s rebuttal to the rule was they were not coaching or teaching but only doing “grunt work”, i.e. helping children put their gear on. They players also returned the money upon self-reporting the violation. The committee’s response was that everything Baker and Jackman did was a part of coaching, therefore a violation of the rule.
The team and family can appeal the decision to the UIL executive committee but no decision has been made on that yet.
