5 things to know about OHSAA’s decision to fine, put DPS on probation

Dunbar head football coach Darran Powell addresses the Wolverines during practice last season. MARC PENDLETON / STAFF

Dunbar head football coach Darran Powell addresses the Wolverines during practice last season. MARC PENDLETON / STAFF

Here are five things to know about the Ohio High School Athletic Association decision to fine Dayton Public Schools $10,000 and place all its boys and girls sports teams on probation for three years:

1. How did this happen? Dunbar football coaches accused DPS director of athletics Mark Baker of instructing Dunbar to lose to Belmont in a Week 10 football game last season. Why? So both City League teams would qualify for the playoffs. DPS superintendent Rhonda Corr exonerated Baker. The OHSAA didn’t name anyone, instead citing a lack of “administrative control.”

2. What is the status of all involved? Dunbar boys basketball coach Pete Pullen resigned as the school’s AD. None of the football coaching staff, including head coach Darran Powell, have been retained; interviews are next week. All coaching contracts are annually renewable. DPS did not address the OHSAA decisions. Neither Baker nor Corr responded to requests for comment.

3. What City League teams are affected? All of them, all sports, boys and girls: Belmont, Dunbar, Meadowdale, Ponitz, Stivers and Thurgood Marshall. The OHSAA will refund $2,500 if no other incidents occur during the probation. The three-year probation will be reduced one year if no similar incidents occur.

“This represents your community, all the schools in the community and it’s just a really tough thing for us,” OHSAA Commissioner Dr. Dan Ross said.

4. Will playoff football games return to Welcome Stadium after none was played there last season? Maybe; that’s up to the OHSAA. “We had not experienced anything like this,” Ross said. “To turn around and put tournament games in there (last season) would have been difficult.”

5. Will there be retribution among DPS personnel? There’s always the possibility.

“That’s something the Dayton city schools have to be responsible for,” Ross said. “There’s a lot of really good, solid people who are involved in this. You certainly hope that as they work through all of that the decision they make would be good for the kids and these coaches and everybody who will be serving in the Dayton city schools.”

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