Harassment of Timber Creek players by investigators claimed
Several Timber Creek High School football players and their families have been "interviewed, followed, and harassed" in recent weeks by investigators from the Camden County's Prosecutor's Office, the attorney for the team's football coach said at the Black Horse Pike Board of Education meeting on Thursday night.
Several Timber Creek High School football players and their families have been "interviewed, followed, and harassed" in recent weeks by investigators from the Camden County's Prosecutor's Office, the attorney for the team's football coach said at the Black Horse Pike Board of Education meeting on Thursday night.
Troy Archie, a Cinnaminson attorney who represents football coach Rob Hinson, was one of several speakers who addressed the board at its monthly meeting at the administration building on Erial Road in Blackwood.
Archie asked the board and Black Horse Pike Superintendent Brian Repici to consider hosting a "meeting" between investigators and players and their families."
"We want to get to the bottom of this," Archie said of the probe into residency issues with regard to some Timber Creek players. "Identify the players you have concerns about. Bring them in. Bring their parents in. Let's get this thing settled."
Repici said after the meeting that he could not comment on Archie's suggestion or on any other matter with regard to the investigation.
Repici said the district issued a statement on its website in the form of the "open letter" to parents and guardians Wednesday.
In the statement, Repici said the district was "very well aware of the residency concerns and taking the accusations promulgated by an anonymous group of concerned citizens very seriously."
In May, an anonymous group that identified itself as S.T.O.P (Stop Taking Our Players) sent a 13-page letter to the Prosecutor's Office, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the Black Horse Pike district, and several media outlets, charging that the Timber Creek program included on its roster several players who don't have legitimate district addresses.
One of the players mentioned in a "case study" of student-athletes who live outside the district in the anonymous letter was identified as "E.A."
On Thursday's agenda, one of the monthly action items recommended a student identified as "E.A., a regular-education student from the Winslow Twp. school district," be placed in the district for the 2016-17 school year as a tuition student. The board unanimously approved the recommendation.
Archie confirmed that his son Ezrah Archie, a star senior wide receiver for Timber Creek, is a tuition student at the school.
During the opportunity for public comments, four speakers stood to offer their support for Hinson, who has been Timber Creek's coach for the last 10 seasons.
@PhilAnastasia