Austin American Statesman: SPC penalizes Austin St. Andrew's for recruiting football player from American Samoa

10:11 AM Mon, Oct 11, 2010 | Permalink Mark Dent / Reporter    Bio |  E-mail  | News tips

Crazy story out of the Austin American Statesman regarding the winless St. Andrew's program. The school, which has lost 19 straight football games, is being punished with three years probation for sending a coach/administrator on what was termed a search for football players.


According to the story, Steven Garcia and David Petrick went to American Samoa on behalf of St. Andrew's. The Samoa News quoted Garcia this summer about the trip: "We have 360 kids in the high school, but we don't have big kids," Garcia told the Samoa News. "But we come over here in Samoa, and we take a look around, and we were just amazed by the size of these players. ... We stopped by and saw JV practice at Tafuna High School yesterday and some of those JV kids are bigger than our varsity players back in Texas. We are very interested in the size of the players here in Samoa and we are hoping (for) some players for St. Andrew's."


The Samoa News also reported that kids were offered full tuition and room and board. To say the least, Garcia wasn't exactly subtle about his intentions. Here's another quote from the story about the purpose of the trip: "At this point we are looking more into male student athletes, but as we move forward, maybe we can get some female students to come and join us, but at this point, we are here looking for football players," he said.





According to the Statesman's article, only one kid came to St. Andrew's. The SPC is not allowing him to participate in any varsity SPC contests for his high school career.