Turlock High, SJS meet Friday in ‘collaborative’ session on football allegations
Turlock High officials met with the Sac-Joaquin Section office Friday in Turlock to discuss allegations that arose after local high school football players transferred to Turlock while playing for an offseason club team called “The Lock.”
“It went great,” section commissioner Mike Garrison said Friday afternoon. “It was collaborative, cooperative. We’re working as a team to figure out what is going on — if anything is going on.”
School Principal Dave Kline told The Turlock Journal earlier this week that he and “site administrators” would represent the Bulldogs and after the meeting “we’ll begin looking at next steps.”
“The Lock” has high school 7-on-7 and 5-on-5 teams, as well as seventh- and eighth-grade teams, and is run by Turlock High assistant coaches.
Local high school football players not on Turlock’s team can play for “The Lock,” but if they do, and then transfer to Turlock High, the SJS can penalize the school.
During a Central California Athletic League athletic directors meeting in early March, Turlock was asked whether “The Lock” was being used as a way for coaches to contact local players to not only play for the offseason 7-on-7 and 5-on-5 teams but also get them to attend the school.
Just this offseason, players from Denair, Merced and Los Banos have transferred to Turlock. Also, a 2024 All-Valley Oak League lineman from Central Catholic announced a transfer to Turlock. All have some association with “The Lock.”
Turlock has also received commitments from eighth-graders from surrounding cities, including Modesto.
Originally, a handful of the recent offseason transfers posted on social media that they would be joining Turlock. Some players have not had transfer paperwork processed and, as of Friday morning, some names do not show up on the Sac-Joaquin Section’s website under transfer rulings.
Over the past couple of weeks, a number of the posts have been deleted. The only posts that remain are from players whose transfers have been processed by the section.
Essentially, there are coaches interpreting the section’s 510 bylaw to mean there should not be any in-depth football communication between a player and a coach at a different school before the athlete enrolls in a school. Coaches believe the bylaw applies whether said coach is part of a club organization or not.
For the past few weeks, The Bee has talked to Stanislaus District coaches and athletic directors who are looking for answers on whether rules are being followed properly. If they are, some say, they want to follow Turlock’s model to help improve their programs.
“I was looking for some clarity so I took some of my concerns to my athletic director, who took them to the AD meeting and there was discussion on whether it was legal or not,” Downey High coach Jeremy Plaa said. “I told my athletic director, all I want is clarity because if that is legal, we want to be able to follow suit and do the same thing next year.
“I talked to coach Peterson a couple days later and he let me know that in his opinion that everything is legal. I told him that if it is, I will be calling him back on the blueprint on how to get started with this. But I also told him I didn’t think it seemed legal according to the way I interpret the 510 bylaws.”
