Football flap at Canfield High pits student vs. racism

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

CANFIELD — A decision on a former Canfield High School football player’s appeal to the Ohio High School Athletic Association has a family feeling vindicated, but school district administrators feel shut out.

A week after the OHSAA decision, questions remain: Does the Canfield school district have a problem with racism? Do the administrators have their heads in the sand over it?

Did the appeals process follow OHSAA’s guidelines, or did a rogue decision set a bad precedent for all Ohio schools superintendents?

Jake Dragovich, a sophomore at Ursuline High School, transferred there from Canfield in August. Jake’s athletic interests include football and baseball. He played freshman football at Canfield and would have been on the varsity team this year.

But Jake transferred to Ursuline, mainly because of what he felt were uncalled-for racist remarks and attitudes made by some football players and alleged threats against him because he made the behavior public.

When Jake transferred, his family remained residents in the Canfield district.

So, the only other way he could play at Ursuline this year was to obtain what’s called a safety and well-being transfer. Canfield Superintendent Dante Zambrini would have had to sign a form saying the boy’s safety or well-being were in jeopardy at Canfield High School.

Otherwise, Jake would have to sit out for an entire year of athletics. That’s an OHSAA rule that’s meant to prevent athletes from shopping for more playing time or a better athletic deal at another district.

Jake and his father, Joe, contend he was eligible for the transfer because he was subject to racist comments made by Canfield players, and his safety may have even been threatened because he spoke up about the remarks.

Racial comments were directed at opponents on other teams and even at Jake, although he is white, the Dragoviches say. There are no black varsity players at Canfield; there is a black freshman player, according to the district.

Jake spoke out against his teammates’ comments, and that may have led to an incident during an August scrimmage in which Jake was made to play the position of middle linebacker — a tough position he wasn’t familiar with, he and his father said. He previously played was with outside linebacker/wide receiver.

Zambrini denied the safety and well-being transfer, which meant the boy could not play football this year at Ursuline.

His sophomore year in baseball looked as if it might not happen, too.

The Dragoviches appealed. After a hearing Nov. 28, an appeals board for the OHSAA voted 4-1 to revoke Zambrini’s decision.

The decision by the appeals board, made up of five superintendents from the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, is final, according to OHSAA bylaws. Jake can play baseball.

But Canfield administrators contend there was no pervasive racism that threatened Jake’s well-being. Zambrini said he denied the transfer because he didn’t believe it was warranted under the OHSAA’s own guidelines.Those guidelines call for evidence the boy was subject to physical abuse or mental abuse by a coach or coaching staff, Zambrini said. He and Canfield Athletic Director Greg Cooper said there was no such evidence in Jake’s case.

Zambrini said he had no documentation that Jake had been treated by any medical professionals. He also said he was told only by the boy’s father that Jake had overheard the use of racial slurs.

Jake and Joe countered that the appeals board told them they didn’t need doctors to tell that the situation was bothering Jake.

Zambrini said there was no evidence of mistreatment by the coaching staff. Cooper said the practice of making sophomores play different positions during scrimmages is common: They mimic opponents for varsity players.

Zambrini said he called an assistant commissioner at the OHSAA to review the facts he had. That official agreed, he said: The evidence didn’t fit the definition of abuse by a coach or coaching staff.

Cooper said that Jake appeared to be a happy boy who interacted fine with other kids.

He and Zambrini said that based on conversations between Cooper and Mike Pavlansky, head football coach, it appears the real issue for Joe Dragovich was Jake’s playing time.

In a memorandum for the record, Cooper recalled an Aug. 17 conversation with Joe Dragovich:

“I could tell he was upset. ... He expressed dissatisfaction with his son’s relative lack of playing time during the scrimmage. ... There was no other ‘bone of contention’ brought up other than Mr. Dragovich’s perception of Jake not being given an opportunity to compete evenly with the other Canfield players and that he deserved, by inference, to be higher on the team’s depth chart.”

The administrators believe, they said, that Joe Dragovich didn’t want to accept that his son wasn’t good enough to play as much as the bigger, stronger varsity upperclassmen.

The administrators want to make it “all about football,” and it isn’t, Joe Dragovich asserts.

Sharon Dragovich, Jake’s mother, runs a group home in Goshen Township for teenage girls. There are up to 15 girls there of various races, he said, and the Dragoviches have raised Jake in a home free of racism.

Comments about players on other teams bothered him, said Jake and his father. Sharon first spoke up in August 2006, scolding players she heard make racist comments at a freshman scrimmage, they said.

Yes, Dragovich said, playing time was an issue — because of the reason behind his son’s being alone so much on the bench. He and Jake said they believe he was benched so much because he spoke out against the racist comments.

Joe Dragovich said that when he tried to talk to Pavlansky and the administrators about the racism, they refused to believe it was really happening.

Jake said he got virtually no playing time. “There were times when the bench was cleared except for me.”

The Canfield officials acknowledged that Jake appeared to be a promising player.

“So what’s the reason? Why are you treating him so differently?” Joe said.

It was at an August morning special teams practice before a scrimmage against East High School that things took a more ominous turn, Jake and his father said.

Jake said he overheard racist comments made by two Canfield players, and he confronted them. “I said, ‘Why do you have to use terms like that’ ”?

That afternoon, at a varsity practice, Jake was told to take the middle linebacker position. The coach told him he was tough enough to handle it, though, Jake wondered, how could the coach know that when he’d barely seen him play.

“What was he supposed to learn by being a practice dummy for these guys?” his father said.

They said they told the board about the racist comments, the middle linebacker incident and three harassing phone calls Jake got about a week after he left Canfield. Jake was even warned to be careful when he escorted a girlfriend to Canfield’s homecoming, Joe said, because there was talk there might be retaliation against him there.

“Should I have left Jake there until something happens?” Joe asked. “How much should we have to tolerate?”

Zambrini defended his coaching staff, saying they make it clear to their players that they are ambassadors for the school district and that racist comments aren’t tolerated.

He said he and other district representatives intend to meet with OHSAA officials to address what they believe is a flawed appeals process because it doesn’t give the superintendent who made the original decision a chance to hear new evidence that could come up. It’s a due process issue, he said.

Jake is happy at Ursuline. Though he and his parents tried to salvage his sophomore football year, he said, he was willing to risk losing it.

“I gave up my season already,” he said. “That [football] isn’t what it was about.”

On Canfield’s part, Zambrini and Cooper say, they wish Jake well. Their questions, they say, are for the OHSAA about its appeals process.