The transfers of six Reagan High School football players this summer, including starting tailback John Carrington, to Cornerstone Christian High School has raised red flags about the private school’s strategy to expand its athletic program.
Three other North East ISD schools have lost football players to Cornerstone, NEISD athletic director Karen Funk confirmed Thursday, but “Reagan has been hit the hardest.”
A Reagan volleyball player also has transferred to Cornerstone, where former Rattlers coach Mike Carter, who built a state powerhouse at Reagan before resigning this year, was hired as head volleyball coach in the spring.
“We have reason to believe and knowledge that some athletes from our district are being recruited by Cornerstone,” NEISD communications director Aubrey Chancellor said.
Reagan coach Lyndon Hamilton did not comment, referring all questions to Chancellor.
Rules of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, which includes Cornerstone, prohibit member schools from recruiting athletes. Cornerstone has been sanctioned by TAPPS twice since the 1990’s for rules violations involving its basketball program.
“Cornerstone is not going to dignify unsubstantiated rumors and allegations with a response,” school spokesman Ari Morgenstern said Thursday night.
Cornerstone Christian Schools will start classes later this month with about 400 transfer students, according to Morgenstern.
“Of those 400, just 19 are athletes,” he said. “And only half of the 19 are football players.”
TAPPS, which has its offices in Fort Worth, governs extracurricular activities for most of the private schools in the state. Executive Director Bryan Bunselmeyer and his staff are still reviewing all transfers. Bunselmeyer said that TAPPS is not currently conducting an investigation into the recruiting allegations related to Cornerstone
“I know that right now there’s great concern in the San Antonio area with the transfers to Cornerstone, but we look at every transfer across the state,” Bunselmeyer said. “There’s a process that will be followed. There’s really no grave concern because you treat each transfer one at a time.
“That does not mean that you don’t look at each transfer hard. That doesn’t mean that you don’t look to make sure the rules are followed. We move forward with the process. You look at each transfer and try to determine to the best of your ability that the rules were followed or not followed.”
Northside ISD Athletic Director Stan Laing could not confirm whether any of the district’s athletes have transferred to Cornerstone because school hasn’t started yet.
Laing said it’s important that everyone allow the transfer process to run its course.
“There are a lot of allegations out there across the city,” Laing said. “But just like the UIL, TAPPS has a process in place. Let’s just see what happens. There have been allegations about Cornerstone possibly recruiting some of our athletes, and we’ve passed that on to TAPPS. I think that they’re actively looking at each and every one of them. But they are allegations until proven.”
The University Interscholastic League is the governing body for extracurricular activities in Texas public schools.
If transferring students plan to compete in athletics at their new school, UIL rules require that the athlete and the head coach at the school they are leaving complete a Previous Athletic Participation Form.
“Each one of our football coaches [who lost players to Cornerstone] marked in the appropriate boxes on the Previous Athletic Participation Forms so that red flags would fly, because none of them felt that the students were going to Cornerstone to be in that environment, that promises had been made and guaranteed to both parents and students,” Funk said.
“They wrote comments, so that a red flag would be raised and there would be an investigation, because not a single kid talked about wanting to go to a private school. They didn’t talk about it being somewhere they wanted to spend their life. It was all about promises and guarantees for their future life.”
Cornerstone has upgraded its athletic facilities and hired a new athletic director, Raymond Philyaw, since last football season. The school fired football coach Bryan Marmion in April and hired Abram Booty. His son, General Booty, is a blue-chip quarterback.
Johnny Booty, Abram’s father, is Cornerstone’s new director of sports ministry. He has coached at Evangel Christian Academy and Calvary Baptist Academy, both powerhouse prep schools in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Former San Antonio Stars player Sophia Young-Malcolm also has been hired as the girls basketball coach.
