Mingus Union to appeal AIA's decision to place cross country, track programs on probation

The Arizona Interscholastic Association's Executive Board on Tuesday placed Cottonwood Mingus Union's cross country and track teams on probation for a violation that occurred at the state cross country meet in the fall.

Mingus will be ineligible for this spring's state track meet and next fall's state cross country meet with the one-year probation status.

Athletic Director Yancey DeVore told The Arizona Republic in an email on Wednesday that the school will appeal the decision.

"Mingus does not agree with the decision to place both our programs on probation and are planning on appealing the decision," DeVore said.

A female runner competed in the Division III state meet at the Cave Creek golf course in Phoenix last November wearing a Mingus jersey, even though she didn't qualify for the race.

Mingus reported the violation to the AIA, stating that the father of the athlete acted independently from the school, knowingly allowing his daughter to run in the state cross country championships. The report said that she was on the team that qualified for state, however, she "was not declared by our coach."

He said the parent ''took it upon themselves to have her run without the athletic director's and head coach's knowledge," the school's report reads.

The school spoke to the father, who understood how he put the school in jeopardy and that it was not his intention, according to the school's corrective action.

"He is willing to take responsibility for his actions and speak on behalf of the school if necessary," the corrective action states.

DeVore told the board Tuesday that it was willing to keep the runner out of the first half of the spring track and field season.

"This is uncharted territory for us," DeVore said. "When we started looking at it, we were going to see what the AIA was going to do before we made a decision on this. It was tabled in the last meeting. We went back and issued a written reprimand for our coach. And also issued a 50% suspension for the athlete for the up-and-coming track season.

"If she submitted letters of apology to the school and to the AIA, we would hold that back to a third of the track season. Our goal in the whole thing was to correct this behavior from ever happening again. I met with the student on different occasions. She was pretty repentful, was very aware of her actions and the problem created for the school, herself and her team."

DeVore said he also had multiple conversations with her dad, as well.

"They would definitely change things if they had to do it all over again," DeVore said.

AIA Board President Jim Dean asked DeVore if the suspension would be for the first half or the second half of the track season. DeVore didn't make that distinction but he said he would prefer the first half of the season.

Another board member asked if the coach was aware that the runner was participating in the state meet. DeVore said no.

"My concern here," Dean said, "is that the consequence for the action doesn't meet the action. In my mind, you have a clear intent to violate the ethics of the event and the ethics of the association. My concern is that the consequences of that from the school perspective still allows this athlete to participate in another state championship event, should that athlete qualify.

"I'm not certain of the thought process behind that and I'm not asking you to justify all your thoughts on that. But that doesn't sit well with me."

DeVore said the school's goal was to correct the behavior.

"We felt like the communication with the family in this we had accomplished that."

DeVore added that the athlete and her family acted independently of the school.

"Our coach made a mistake by not declaring athletes for the state cross country meet and that's kind of what led to this out of frustration from the family," DeVore said. "But it was not a decision that our coach went to that kid and said this is what we're going to do. We didn't provide transportation. We didn't communicate with the family to send your kid down there to make a statement or anything like that. Our head coach found out afterwards that she ran in the state meet. And I found out from our head coach after that."

AIA Executive Director David Hines said he appreciated DeVore saying that, but the problem was that the athlete represented the school running in the meet.

The board could have given Mingus advisement, warning or probation. The board chose the latter, which means the school can't compete in this May's state track championships and next season's state cross country meet.

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mingus Union to appeal AIA's decision to place teams on probation