Homeless player still ineligible while Florida coach returns to field

A homeless football player in Florida has been declared ineligible days after the coach who housed him returned to action following a one-game suspension. Now St. Cloud (Fla.) High is fighting the Florida High School Athletic Association to get the player reinstated.

 

Bill Buldini, St. Cloud's first year coach, was suspended for one game during an FHSAA investigation into why he provided free housing to one of his players, whom he had discovered was homeless. After the school learned Buldini was housing a player it self-reported the FHSAA violation, and Buldini was unable to coach while the association investigation the situation.

According to OrlandoSentinel.com, that investigation moved far enough along that Buldini was allowed to return to action for the Bulldogs' 27-18 victory over Evans (Fla.) High on Friday.

That's not the case for the player involved, who has been indefinitely ruled ineligible, according to the St. Cloud athletic director.

"[Buldini is] our football coach and the player has been ruled ineligible," St. Cloud athletic director Chad Ansbaugh told OrlandoSentinel.com. "That's really all I'm allowed to say about it right now. We're appealing [the player's eligibility], but that's the current situation. ...

"Any appeal we do will be on our student's behalf."

While St. Cloud would like to get its ineligible player back on the field, it's likely that the program will have to wait a full month before any chance for that emerges. According to the Sentinel, the FHSAA is unlikely to hear his case before its next Section 1 Appeals Committee meeting, which is Nov. 7.

"The FHSAA is currently looking into the situation," an Association statement on the St. Cloud investigation read. "As per FHSAA policies, the Association cannot comment on any open or ongoing issues. There is no timetable for when this matter will be resolved."

By Nov. 7, the Bulldogs will only have two remaining games (at Harmony and Gateway High Schools), with the homeless player forced to miss four more games before the likely hearing date. That would bring the players total missed games to six, more than half of the Bulldogs' full schedule.

While the FHSAA might uncover something that indicated foul play in its investigation, it's also entirely possible that it would not, which would mean that it punished a homeless player for more than half a season essentially just for being homeless. That hardly seems fair. Given the circumstances, a more expeditious hearing would seem like a wise choice for the FHSAA, though there's no indication that is likely, or even possible.

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Pearl cheated in similar ways while at UW-Milwaukee

Another skeleton has been pulled out of Bruce Pearl's increasingly public closet.

The Tennessee coach, who is trying to endure an NCAA investigation, plus university-enforced punishment over his breach of cell phone allowance and hosting underclassmen recruits at his house, just received one more public stain to his résumé.

ESPN.com's Dana O'Neil and Pat Forde continued to do some investigative work over the weekend; they wanted to know if Pearl had ever been busted in-house while coaching at former schools.

Earlier this afternoon the two filed this story, which shows Pearl hosted junior recruits in 2004 — the same activity which has him twisting in the wind, waiting to find out what the NCAA ultimately decides to charge he and the University of Tennessee with.

Kevin Fitzgerald, the compliance director at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee -- where Pearl previously coached -- confirmed that the university self-reported a violation on Aug. 19, 2004, after "Coach Pearl invited a prospect [and his parents] to his daughter's graduation party hosted at his house, a violation of 13.05.5.3."

Fitzgerald would not name the recruit.

However, multiple sources told ESPN.com that the recruit in question was Mike Schachtner, then a junior at Somerset (Wis.) High School.

Schachtner never signed on with Pearl, choosing to play at Wisconsin-Green Bay instead. What stands out about O'Neil and Forde's story to me: how radioactive it still is. We've got a fairly decent Horizon League player who is a year and a half removed from graduation, yet no one was willing to speak on the record about the ordeal.

Pearl was with the Panthers for four years, from 2001 to 2005. In 2003 and 2005, his team made the NCAA tournament, and his Sweet 16 appearance with his 12th-seeded UW-Milwaukee team was what sprung him into the SEC shortly after the season ended.

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