National Football League

Unbeaten HS team kicked out of playoffs

Published Oct. 28, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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The high school football team coached by former college All-American and NFL player Tim Green was suspended from its local playoffs in upstate New York on Friday amid allegations of recruiting, The Post-Standard in Syracuse reported.

Skaneateles High School was to play Utica Notre Dame on Saturday in the Section III Class C semifinals, with a win there putting the 8-0 team within one victory of playing in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association quarterfinals. The squad won its first-round playoff game last weekend.

The 60-member Section III Athletic Committee met in emergency session Friday and told the school, ranked third in the state in its class, of the suspension.

Later in the day, Green, himself a practicing lawyer, accompanied the school district's lawyer to state Supreme Court in Syracuse to request a temporary restraining order.

Earlier in the week, NYSPHSAA officials outside Albany said they could not recall a member school ever being sanctioned for recruiting violations.

The school self-reported evidence of possible recruiting violations in a five-page report submitted Tuesday to Section III, the regional governing body for high school sports. The law firm conducting the investigation for the school complained that the definition of recruiting under state rules was vague.

The report did not specifically identify Green or any of the school's assistant coaches as being involved in wrongdoing.

Green, a standout defensive end at Syracuse University, was a first-round draft pick by the Atlanta Falcons in 1986 and played for the team through 1993. The 2002 College Football Hall of Fame inductee went on to a career as a TV analyst and author of more than a dozen books.

He was hired to coach in 2010 at Skaneateles, where his son is the starting quarterback on this season's team.

The Skaneateles district’s investigation revealed evidence that coaches violated rules in at least nine instances barring them from trying to recruit students from other schools, the paper reported.

Last season, Section III censured the football team for using a player who had not participated in the minimum number of practices. At that time, officials warned Skaneateles that further violations could lead to more severe penalties.