Columnist Ron Kantowski: On NIAA’s rejection of Brazillian basketball player’s eligibility at Bishop Gorman

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

There aren't many high school districts that publish sports media guides, probably because regardless of where you go,it's not hard to figure out who the good teams are. It's usually the ones with "Saint" or "Bishop" on the front of their jerseys.

The Catholic private schools, although usually smaller than the public ones against which they compete, are many times able to offset that disadvantage with a bigger competitive one -- the ability to recruit.

Still, as Bishop Gorman learned this week, that edge only stretches so far. And, apparently, not as far as Sao Paulo, Brazil.

An arbitrator upheld a Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) decision not to grant highly touted basketball player Jonathan Tavernari eligibility to play for the Gaels this year. The NIAA also has ruled against Joseph Muvuna, a 6-foot-9 10th-grader from Rwanda, at least until he sits out 180 days as per the NIAA eligibility requirement.

Dr. Jerry Hughes, the NIAA's executive director, told me that if Bishop Gorman intends to take Tavernari's case from the basketball court to a court of law, it should expect a fight.

"We're basically trying to treat them like any other student who transfers," Hughes said. "If they were transferring from Green Valley to Foothill, they wouldn't be eligible (under NIAA rules)."

Tavernari's J1 visa allowed him to attend school and play sports for one year as a foreign-exchange student, which he did last year at Timpview High School in Provo, Utah. He is now in the United States on an F1 visa, which only allows him to attend a private school.

Hughes said Bishop Gorman's request was denied because the family with which Tavernari is staying is not considered his legal guardian.

Steve Westmoreland said his sons met Tavernari at a basketball camp at BYU and remained friends. So when Tavernari's J1 visa expired, and he could not find a suitable family arrangement at one of the private schools in Salt Lake City, Westmoreland decided to offer Tavernari his son's old room.

Still, after spending a year hooping it up in Provo, in the shadow of the Brigham Young campus where former UNLV player Dave Rice is an assistant basketball coach, there are those who will question the arrangement.

Grant Rice, Dave's brother, is the head coach at Gorman.

In fact, unless you believe in the tooth fairy and the two-handed set shot, it would be hard to envision a scenario where Tavernari could wind up at Gorman without BYU's knowledge. Which explains why the NCAA already has been in contact with Hughes.

It should be noted that Rice was coaching at Utah State last year when Tavernari was playing high school ball in Provo. And that the Brazil-to-BYU pipeline actually began a few years back when that big lug -- or thug, depending on your point of view -- Rafael Araujo and countryman Luis Lemes terrorized the Mountain West (in Araujo's case, quite literally) while playing for Steve Cleveland.

A previous relationship also brought Muvuna to Gorman's doorstep. He's living with Paul Goulet, a local pastor who has done missionary work in Rwanda.

So all previous and curious relationships notwithstanding, what the situation boils down to is what it typically boils down to: Bishop Gorman parlaying its reputation and perceived resources into an edge on the playing field, and coaches at the other schools blowing the whistle on the Gaels when they do.

"If these kids aren't eligible to play at any of our other schools," said a rival coach, requesting anonymity, "then why should they be allowed to play at Gorman?"

If there's a sympathetic figure in all this, it might well be Tavernari. Everything I've read about him -- and a Google search reveals plenty -- is that he's a good kid and excellent student who just happens to be pretty good in basketball as well as soccer (isn't everybody from Brazil?)

His misfortune, if you can call it that, was choosing basketball over soccer in the United States, where we revere the former and ignore the latter. And choosing to play it at a private school that went 31-3 and won a state title last year instead of one that went 12-16 and missed the playoffs.

It's just that simple.