Marovich: Oasis protected from Mountain Valley situation

The National Collegiate Athletic Association ineligibility of athletes from the Ramona Unified School District’s independent study school is not applicable to athletes from the Fallbrook Union High School District’s counterpart according to Oasis High School principal Melissa Marovich.

“We, about three years ago, registered with the NCAA,” Marovich said. “We’ve cleared our courses through them. That’s why our students don’t have a problem with that.”

In March, the NCAA denied initial eligibility to a women’s water polo player and a men’s golfer who were Mountain Valley Academy seniors at the time and informed a Mountain Valley counselor that MVA graduates are not eligible to receive scholarships or participate in NCAA Division I or Division II programs during their first year in college. The Ramona Unified School District appealed the NCAA’s decision, but the appeal was denied in October although the NCAA promised to evaluate the district superintendent’s proposal to make Mountain Valley’s core courses admissible for NCAA initial eligibility.

The CIF San Diego Section has a “Multi-School Teams Status” policy which allows athletes from certain schools to play for a specified other team. Unified team status is usually granted and renewed under one of three conditions. An independent study or other specialized school (other than a continuation school) affiliated with a comprehensive public school may lead to unified status for the comprehensive and alternative schools. Ninth-graders in junior high schools which feed into high schools which start with tenth-graders can play on the high school team under the Multi-School Teams Status policy. In 2004, the San Diego Unified School District split three high schools into smaller academies within those campuses and the CIF granted Multi-School Teams Status to the individual schools which made up each of those campuses. Oasis students may play on Fallbrook High School athletic teams while Mountain Valley students may participate in Ramona High School sports.

In order for students taking nontraditional coursework to be eligible for NCAA activity, the instructor and student must have regular and ongoing academic-focused access to each other for the duration of the course; the student’s work must be available for evaluation and validation conducted by appropriate academic authorities; the courses must have a defined time period for completion, and the course must be acceptable for any student and be placed on the high school transcript. That criteria applies only for NCAA core course requirements. Although all core courses taken by Mountain Valley student-athletes comply with the NCAA criteria, not all MVA students must follow those requirements.

Marovich explained that the NCAA rules are to deter on-line courses rather than courses where students have “seat time” in a school. “We do offer on-line courses,” Marovich said.

That doesn’t mean that Oasis students don’t frequent the school. “Once a week our students have to come in,” Marovich said.

The Oasis students must be at the campus for one hour each week along with at least one hour a week for each of the core classes. “Because we have those face-to-face requirements where they’re in our building meeting one-on-one with the teacher, that’s why the NCAA’s okay with us,” Marovich said. “Everything is above board, and we’re very transparent with NCAA.”

On Nov. 14, Oasis senior Monica Robinson signed a letter of intent to play tennis at Notre Dame. Robinson became the second Oasis student to receive an NCAA scholarship; 2011 graduate Hailey Johnson now plays tennis for Arizona. Sarah Bushnell, who graduated from Oasis in 2012, is eligible to be on Brigham Young University’s swim team as a true freshman although she did not receive a scholarship.

Marovich said that Robinson had to go through an NCAA clearinghouse. “We don’t want to put an athlete like Monica in jeopardy,” Marovich said.

(Bill Tamburrino of the Ramona Sentinel contributed to this story)