ROUND ROCK – Katy senior infielder Hayden Baker stood in the middle of the Austin Marriott North lobby disappointed once again.
A last-ditch effort to save the Tigers’ baseball season was unsuccessful.
The University Interscholastic League state executive committee denied the school’s appeal Monday, so the baseball team still has to forfeit 20 games and miss the playoffs after Baker and Grant Jackman violated the amateur athletic rule when they were paid as assistant coaches for a local little league team.
“It breaks my heart that it has to end this way,” Baker said. “For me and for mostly (my teammates) because it’s just a terrible thing.”
The 19-6A executive committee unanimously ruled against the players on April 22 and recommended the minimum penalty of forfeiture of games.
The families arguing that Jackman and Baker’s duties were far from coaching and teaching was the center of that district hearing, while Monday’s state hearing focused on the interpretation of the rule.
Section 441 of the UIL’s Constitution and Contest Rules currently states that a student is not an amateur if that individual received money or other valuable considerations for teaching or participating in a league sponsored school sport.
The families never deemed little league baseball as a UIL-sponsored sport like they would if Jackman and Baker were coaching junior high school baseball, for example. So, the players never believed they were in violation of the rule by working with little league players. The district and state committee’s response is that receiving payments for coaching, teaching or participating in any UIL-sponsored sport at any level is a violation of the rule.
The families believe the rule as currently written never makes that clear.
“We feel like it’s a pretty open and clear rule and feel like it was unfortunate that these folks didn’t fully understand it,” said Mike Motheral, chair of the state committee.
The rule, to go in effect in August, will be clarified for next school year and beyond. The Standing Committee on Athletics recommended to the Legislative Council that the edits would not only clarify the current amateur athletic rule, but they would ease restrictions on athletes being able to receive reasonable fees for coaching, teaching or officiating in league sponsored sports.
Jackman and Baker were paid $1,500 between February and April to do what has been described as “grunt work” -keeping game books, helping young players put on equipment and collecting baseballs – for the little league team. The money was returned.
Even though the rule is changing, Motheral said it had nothing to do with Jackman and Baker’s current situation.
“This was about the rule as it stands today and as it stood in February when they started this process,” Motheral said.
Baker maintained that the rule needs altering and clarifying.
“In my opinion yes, it does,” Baker said. “It’s just unfortunate that it happened to us at this time.”
Grant Jackman is headed to Temple College to play baseball. Robert Jackman, Grant’s father, stated that he asked the NCAA for clarification on the coaching rule at first but not the UIL. When Robert Jackman was asked why he did that in the hearing, he said he was unsure of the NCAA’s stance on that issue. Jackman said his son’s status is clear to play at Temple College.
As a result of the penalty, 19-6A’s playoff baseball field consists of Seven Lakes, Strake Jesuit, Katy Taylor and Tompkins.
Katy baseball coach Tom McPherson maintained that the penalty of forfeiture of games should be revised. He believes punishing all for the actions of two is wrong.
Bruce Baker, Hayden’s father, said there was never any evidence Jackman and Baker coached the little leaguers. The committees’ remain skeptical, however, that absolutely no coaching ever took place and no matter what, a violation occurred when the players were paid.
“There are 20 or so people that said they didn’t coach,” Bruce Baker said. “It’s not one single person that said that they did. Who is the accuser here? There is no accuser.”
