Section 2 slaps ABC football for recruiting violation

Albany’s Christian Brothers Academy won its second straight Division 2 Class AA football title in November. The Brothers reached the state semi-finals but were beaten by Newburgh Free Academy 25-20. Rumors of recruiting violations usually surround successful programs. Some of them are sour grapes. Some of them are legit.

On Wednesday, the Division 2 Athletic Council voted to put the CBA football program on probation for the next 3 years, following a recruiting incident. According to Will Springstead of leaderherald.com, Section II executive director Ed Dopp said the incident began with an allegation of recruiting and “undue influence by the football team”. The report says ABC President Dr. James Schlegel self-declared the violation on Nov. 8 last year, allegedly involving a student-athlete from Saratoga Springs.

Following the ruling, CBA football coach Bob Burns gave his side of the story to leaderherald.com. “One of my lower-level coaches approached a guy he was friends with, who he knew, and he asked if he was interested in possibly sending his kid to the ABC. And the assumption was that because my lower-level coach was an ABC coach, it had to do with football. I think it was misinterpreted that way. I’m a little confused that if someone reaches out to someone and says, “Hey, are you interested in sending your kid to the ABC?” how does it recruit? The Section 2 athletic council voted unanimously that the offense was indeed a violation.

This is not the first trip down the violation lane for the ABC with violations in 2015 and 2019. Section 2 reportedly investigated recruitment violations in 2021, although no violations were found, the council expressed “serious concerns”. The Christian Brothers Academy will be on probation for three years and have suspended their football team for one game in Week 0 next season.