Michigan high school football suspensions: M.H. Lamphere coach, U-M commit Bobby Kanka
You can add the name Ray Ostrowski to the list of Michigan high school football coaches not coaching in Week 1, but his case is much more serious than the nixed scrimmages that will keep other coaches off the sidelines this week.
The head coach at Madison Heights Lamphere, Ostrowski is in the middle of a recruiting scandal for which an assistant coach has been fired and five athletes ruled ineligible.
As for Ostrowski, he is out for two weeks — not just two games — two complete weeks in which he has been barred from attending practices.
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Lamphere, which competes in the Macomb Area Conference’s Silver Division and has made the state playoffs the last three seasons, is scheduled to open Thursday at Sterling Heights and will host Center Line on Aug. 31. Ostrowski cannot be anywhere in the vicinity of either game.
But there is more to the story than just illicit transfers, which is why the Michigan High School Athletic Association may not be finished looking into the Lamphere program.
Ostrowski did not respond to phone calls and text messages from the Free Press seeking comment.
The assistant who has been fired had been the running backs coach at Oak Park before joining the staff at Lamphere.
“He was still a member of our staff, as far as we knew, until February and he had been over at Lamphere, but we didn’t know,” said Greg Carter, Oak Park head coach and athletic director (who is one of the coaches suspended for scheduling a scrimmage against MHSAA rules). “Someone saw him at a coaches’ convention with Lamphere stuff on. The called me and said he was wearing another team’s clothing.”
He was believed to have been hired at Lamphere as an assistant football coach as well as a security guard and something of a greeter, like at Walmart.
Soon thereafter, three Oak Park athletes transferred to Lamphere. All three were going to be ineligible — even if they changed residences — because of the link rule.
One of the three returned to Oak Park, but Carter has no idea what happened to the other two.
Lamphere officials became suspicious last semester when athletes began transferring into the school and they didn’t look like athletes who normally attended the school.
In a statement to parents, Lamphere athletic director Adam Wooley, who refused to comment to the Free Press, said the district self-reported the situation to the MHSAA and also recommended self-imposed sanctions, but will adhere to the MHSAA’s penalties.
Firing the former assistant coach and penalizing Ostrowski for two weeks may not be all.
Sources in the Madison Heights school district said Ostrowski has repeatedly attempted to lure athletes from Wilkerson Middle School to Lamphere, despite Wilkerson being a feeder school for Madison Heights Madison.
The Lamphere statement also says: “We are also taking immediate steps to reinforce our compliance procedures and strength our educational efforts regarding MHSAA policies. This includes additional training for our coaching staff, increased oversight, and periodic audits to prevent any future violations.”
Additional training? How about giving them a rule book and telling them not to cheat?
Look: No amount of oversight will change the ways of the coaches determined to cheat.
Michigan commit ineligible for two weeks
Junior two-way lineman Bobby Kanka, who recently committed to Michigan, will not be playing for Howell in the first two weeks of the season.
The 6-feet-5 260-pound standout — a four-star recruit ranked No. 4 in his class in the state by 247 Sports — has been suspended by the MHSAA, related to a residency issue from last year.
Fool the MHSAA once, shame on you, Fool them twice ... well, the MHSAA wasn’t going to let that happen again.
A year ago the MHSAA ruled Kanka ineligible for the entire season after he transferred from Pinckney to Howell without changing residences.
Students who transfer must now sit out two semesters if they don’t meet one of the transfer exceptions, such as changing residences along with the people they had been living with at the time.
The MHSAA emphasizes that athletes and their families must make a full and complete move, which the Kankas hadn’t done once practice began in early August.
Then the family said it had moved to a home in Howell and leased the Pinckney house, but the MHSAA discovered that the people on the lease were already living somewhere else and he was still ruled ineligible.
But just prior to the season, the Kankas put their Pinckney house up for sale. The MHSAA spoke to the realtor, who said the house would be sold within a couple of weeks, and Kanka was cleared to play.
MHSAA executive director Mark Uyl checked the status of the house weekly during the season, but it never sold, which did not sit well with the MHSAA.
MHSAA officials felt they had been played.
“Starting last fall,” Uyl said, “the amount of site visits that our staff made to ensure a full and complete move took place were as aggressive as we’ve ever been on a transfer.”
Kanka suffered a season-ending injury in Week 5 and, eventually, a funny thing happened: The family moved back to the Pinckney home.
And in doing its due diligence, the MHSAA found out about it.
“By that same token, that same approach,” Uyl said, “follow-up after the season had ended and because of that there’s been an additional penalty.”
Under the rule, the family was eligible to move back to its former residence after 90 days.
“They returned after 80-some school days,” Uyl said, “and the rule says 90.”
(By the way, the rule permitting someone to return to their former residence after 90 days is so idiotic it should be taken off the books by Thursday, if not sooner. If one is supposed to make a full and complete move, keep it that way.)
Ironically, a fire at the Pinckney home last winter has the family living in Howell again.
Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1. Order his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan high school football: Bobby Kanka to miss 2 games for Howell
