The news on what happend came out a few days ago.
Last week on the radio I hear Mike Sautter defending Millard South against all the recuriting allegations by saying 17 of 21 Millard South starters played in the Junior Patriots youth football feeder program. And 9 of the 12 players with Div. I offers started there high school playing careers at Millard South. The message being that most of the players are home grown. (Host Ravi pointed out that saying they were not transfers didn't count players who optioned into the district before their freshman year to play at MSHS).
(relevant section starts at 1:32. Yoy may need to wipe your screen off to remove excess smugness)
Well, Mike it kind of hurts your aruments when some of the players on that Junior Patriots team were DRIVING 6-HOUR ROUND TRIPS TWICE A WEEK FROM KANSAS CITY TO PLAY FOR THEM, doesn't it now?
From the OWH:
The Nebraska School Activities Association found a Millard South volunteer assistant football coach committed an act of undue influence when he had two players living with him without legal guardianship, according to a document obtained Thursday by The World-Herald.
Because of the violation of NSAA Bylaw 2.8, the players were deemed ineligible when they played in Millard South’s season-opening game, a 49-7 win at Las Vegas Arbor View that the Nebraska School Activities Association board of directors made the school forfeit.
But the board made the players eligible if they established legal guardianship. Both played in last Friday’s game at Kearney after not playing the week before against Millard West.
The Millard School District provided the NSAA letter of determination to the newspaper. Names were redacted in the letter.
The volunteer assistant coach, Joe Glab, told The World-Herald on Thursday that the family of the two players, MJ and Tatum Wash from suburban Kansas City, has since granted him power of attorney that establishes guardianship.
MJ Wash is a 6-foot-2, 215-pound senior rush end who’s made six total tackles in the two games he’s played for the defending state champion Patriots. As a sophomore at Mill Valley in Shawnee, Kansas, he won the state’s large-school 215-pound wrestling title.
Glab said his family has known the Wash family for six or seven years through youth football.
For three years, the brothers were on Junior Patriots teams that he coached, making the six-hour round trip twice a week for practice. The families have vacationed together and stay at each other's houses when their children's teams are in town.
Glab said the father, Chris Wash, sought to move the family to Omaha the past couple years and have his sons play for Millard South but was unsuccessful in finding appropriate employment. Since May 2024, the elder Wash has been the associate director of facilities management in recreation services at the University of Kansas.
This past spring, the Wash brothers posted separately on social media they were coming to Millard South.
“After talking with my family and many prayers, I have decided to reunite with my club coaches and teammates at Millard South High School, Omaha, NE for my senior year!” was MJ Wash’s post on X from May 20.
“I couldn’t miss this opportunity to play with my brother his senior year I will miss my MV family,” was Tatum Wash’s post the following day on X.
Glab said Chris Wash called him in late April.
“He was like, ‘Hey, Joe, I've tried to find jobs up there. I can't find one that will hire me or that works for our family budget. Is there any way that he could come live with you guys and play with his buddies?” Glab said.
Glab said while he, the Wash family and school officials believed the required paperwork with the NSAA was in order, several days after the Las Vegas game “we were told, well, technically, there's a rule that you can't live with a coach.”
The school district appealed the Sept. 8 ruling by NSAA Executive Director Jennifer Schwartz at a closed hearing conducted electronically Sept. 11 with the NSAA board and Schwartz.
The sanctions placed on the Patriots, besides the forfeited game, include new coach Taylor Mendenhall being suspended for two games, Glab put on a one-year suspension (through Sept. 11, 2026) from coaching at any high school in the state and the school fined $500 and required to submit a written action plan to Schwartz for lack of administrative oversight.
“Ultimately I take full responsibility for the administrative oversight,’’ Millard South Athletic Director Steve Throne said in an email last week to parents that he gave Thursday to The World-Herald. “All eligibility matters run through me. I failed in this situation.
“I will do everything I can to be better in the future for our students, staff and community. As a result of this situation we have established systems and protocols to ensure this will never happen again. I apologize.”
Glab said he volunteered to take the suspension.
“Steve Throne came to me and said, ‘Would you accept this punishment so I can put it out there as a punishment that we can have for this oversight? And I said, Yes, I will accept,’’ he said. “If me losing a year or probably two (of coaching) because I won't be able to come back next year, because it'll be like half the season, it's fine.
“I don't care about myself. I want the kid to be eligible because MJ is going to go to college to play football, and I want him to have that experience. I don't want him to miss a whole year because of some document that we didn't get signed appropriately.”
NSAA rule 2.8: Undue influence
The specific rule applicable to the sanctions levied by the Nebraska School Activities Association on Millard South is Rule 2.8.1:
2.8.1: The use of any of the following inducements may constitute undue influence, resulting in ineligibility of the student for all high school participation as stipulated in current NSAA Bylaw 2.7:
A) Participant living with a coach, principal, teacher, or school official without legal guardianship.
Other inducements, not applicable in this case, include transportation to school by any school official; offer or acceptance of employment for the parents in order to entice the family to move to a certain community so as to gain the services of a child in the school’s activity program; or any attempt by a representative of a school or any individual or group outside the school to recruit a student(s) in order to gain his/her services in the school’s activity program prior to a student’s enrollment.
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