NIAA’s power to enforce its rules now in jeopardy

Adam Candee

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2003 | 9:56 a.m.

You're still wrong, but today, you win.

That is essentially what District Judge Jackie Glass told the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association at Tuesday's hearing when she denied a preliminary injunction request made on behalf of Cheyenne football player David Peeples.

The ruling dismisses Peeples' case, but that is moot because Cheyenne was eliminated from the playoffs last weekend. It also has no retroactive effect on anything that has happened in this year's region playoffs.

The hearing disheartened an already dejected Dr. Jerry Hughes, director of the NIAA. The future of his organization is at stake, Hughes said, and the NIAA may not be able to continue policing high school athletics in Nevada without finding an efficient way to apply due process in disciplinary situations.

"To be honest, I think the answer's going to be that we don't have rules," Hughes said.

Glass reiterated her initial decision that the NIAA violated Peeples' due process rights by not allowing for a hearing on disciplinary action against him. That is the reason Glass cited for issuing a Nov. 14 temporary restraining order that overturned the NIAA's penalties and allowed Cheyenne to continue in the playoffs.

Hughes counters that under the NIAA's current rules, providing due process can take more than a month and up to $500 per case. It can be even more inefficient, especially in a time-sensitive situation like playoffs, and more costly in a brawl situation like that of Cheyenne and Gorman.

Without an overhaul of NIAA rules -- one that still may not satisfy Nevada statutes -- Hughes expects that Peeples will not be the last athlete to seek legal help against discipline. If the NIAA did not govern disciplinary situations, that responsibility would likely fall back to school districts.

"The bottom line is, if we go to court, we're going to have a hard time," Hughes said. "(Our rules are) not written for lawyers to tear apart."

Before denying the injunction because Cheyenne is eliminated and Peeples is no longer in danger of "irreparable harm" because of suspension, Glass chastised both the NIAA's punishment rules and its application of them in choosing to suspend the entire Cheyenne team for a playoff game for its role in a Nov. 7 post-game brawl with Bishop Gorman.

Glass cited the NIAA's hastened review process of the fight -- a situation brought on in part by the Veterans Day holiday -- as an issue "troubling" her.

"The NIAA does not operate in a vacuum and have the ability to act improperly," Glass said. "Had the NIAA followed its own regulations and procedures, this Court would not have stepped in to interfere with the NIAA and its decisions."

Ross Goodman, Peeples' attorney, saw the denial as a moral victory.

"I was satisfied that the court ruled that the NIAA did violate Mr. Peeples' due process," Goodman said.

Despite the tough language from Glass, both NIAA attorney Paul Anderson and Clark County School District attorney Bill Hoffman said the means to the dismissal are not as important as the end accomplished.

"The NIAA's rules have been vindicated," Hoffman said. "Whatever the rationale, the result is the case is dismissed."

Expressing disappointment that he did not get to present any new evidence in open court, Anderson said that Glass's decision did not encompass all of what the NIAA would have liked.

"I think the judge may have missed the point," Anderson said.

The NIAA Board of Control will meet next week to review all of its rules, and the session could set the course for the future of the organization. Also to be determined at that two-day meeting in Reno is what penalty Cheyenne will now receive. Bishop Gorman received a one-game team suspension from its first league game of 2004.