The WPIAL has ruled a basketball player ineligible to play for a year after transferring to a charter school.
Nick Aloi transferred in January from Ellwood City High School to Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Beaver County. Lincoln Park has become a basketball power at the Class A level. The WPIAL Board of Control had a hearing yesterday with Aloi, his parents and officials from both Ellwood City and Lincoln Park.
The WPIAL ruled the transfer was at least partly for athletic reasons, which is against league and PIAA rules. After hearing testimony, the WPIAL voted, 16-0, to make Aloi ineligible for one year from the date of the hearing. That means Aloi can’t play next season. Aloi is expected to appeal the case to the PIAA.
It is an interesting case because charter schools and basketball are hot-button topics now in Pennsylvania high school sports. The WPIAL’s ruling came yesterday afternoon, only a few hours after PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi attended an annual meeting in Green Tree with WPIAL athletic directors to inform them of any changes in PIAA by-laws, and also to address any concerns from member schools. Lombardi spent a good portion of his time explaining how schools across the state are complaining about the great success charter schools are now having in basketball.
A number of charter schools have opened in the last decade or so, mostly in Philadelphia. Some of those schools, although small, have started to have big impacts on high school basketball, especially in the smaller classifications (Class A and AA). In the past four years, eight teams from charter schools have made it to PIAA championship games. Those charter schools are using a number of transfer students. Lincoln Park has become a Class A power and won a PIAA title this year. In recent years, Lincoln Park has taken transfer students who have been keys to their basketball success.
Lombardi recently met with the state legislature about the charter schools issue and said the PIAA hopes to address the problem in the near future. A charter school is publicly funded, but has no geographic boundaries like public schools. When a student from a public school decides to attend a charter school, the public school must pay the charter school a fee to educate that student. The fee is around $10,000 and can be as high as $20,000 if the student is deemed “special education.”
Now, back to the Aloi case. A guard, Aloi showed plenty of potential when he averaged 15 points a game for Ellwood City as a freshman in the 2012-13 season. He did not play this season because of a knee injury and enrolled at Lincoln Park Jan. 21.
Ellwood City contested the transfer and principal Kirk Lape did not sign off on the move because he believed it was for athletic purposes. It made for a complicated situation because Aloi’s grandfather, Frank, is superintendent of Ellwood City schools. Lape attended yesterday’s hearing to state Ellwood City’s case. The superintendent did not attend the hearing.
Nick Aloi and his parents both attended the hearing. Nick’s parents, Frank and Maura, declined comment afterward. Frank Aloi (Nick’s father) is a former player at Ellwood City.
Frank and Maura Aloi are both doctors. Craig Lee, the Alois’ attorney, said the Alois contend that basketball had absolutely nothing to do with their son’s transfer. They say their son is attending Lincoln Park in order to better prepare him academically to become a doctor.
Lee said the Alois “feel that it’s harder and harder to get into medical school and one now needs to get a head start in high school to prepare for their first two years in college, which is important to get into medical school. The way to prepare is to get college-level credits. They can do that at Lincoln Park. That’s unique to Lincoln Park, compared to what Ellwood City has.”
Ellwood City has advanced placement classes, but the Alois contend those classes aren’t as good for their son’s hope to become an orthopedic doctor.
Although Lincoln Park is a performing arts school, it also has a department of “health science and the arts.” The department director is Mike Bariski, who also is Lincoln Park’s athletic director and assistant basketball coach.
Lincoln Park’s web site says courses offered in the health science and the arts department include “anatomy 1, anatomy 2, wellness and nutrition, first aid and safety, performance psychology, rules of the games, prevention and care of injuries, movement and dance dynamics, diseases and disorders of the systems, human sexuality, and performance and fitness improvement.
Lincoln Park’s mission statement for the health science and the arts department states “the valuable information from these classes may lead students into such careers as nursing, paramedics, firefighting, athletic training, nutrition or coaching.” It doesn’t mention doctor.
At yesterday’s hearing, Lape presented evidence of Ellwood City’s offerings of advanced classes and he also presented a list of 30-40 individuals who are graduates of Ellwood City and are now either doctors or in the medical field.
“We offer a curriculum that allows every student the opportunity to go for a college or non-college course track,” said Lape. “We have a graduate right now who is in NYU’s medical program.”
Just this week, U.S. News and World Report released its 2014 Best High Schools in the country. Ellwood City was one of 2,688 schools to receive a bronze medal ranking for the fifth year in a row. Five-hundred schools were ranked gold medal and 1,519 silver medal. Lincoln Park did not receive a medal ranking.
“Ellwood City thought the issues for the transfer were related to basketball and they documented those,” said WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley. “They spent a great deal of time at the hearing pointing out their academics and their ability to prepare kids for college and they did an excellent job of that. In doing so, they turned the issue back to basketball.”
O’Malley said the WPIAL did not feel Lincoln Park recruited Aloi, but the league felt his move was still athletically motivated.
The hearing was closed to the media at Ellwood City’s request. Ellwood City basketball coach Anthony Ovial also testified. Ellwood City is 7-37 in Ovial’s two years as coach.
“[Ellwood City] testified that Dr. [Frank] Aloi made a comment to coach Ovial before he was hired,” said Lee. “They claimed Dr. Aloi said ‘I’m not happy with the direction of the program and I wouldn’t hesitate to take my kid out and transfer him to Lincoln Park.’ Dr. Aloi denies that.”
Lee said Nick Aloi’s father was a volunteer assistant coach for Ellwood City the past two years.
“Things just don’t add up. There are inconsistencies with their testimony,” said Lee.
Aloi is expected to appeal his case to the PIAA. The PIAA has overturned the WPIAL in many rulings. But considering how the PIAA’s executive director is talking about addressing problems with transfers to charter schools, it will be quite interesting to see what the PIAA rules.
Aloi’s appeal hearing at the PIAA will likely be next month.