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Transcript
Mix-up Nearly Costs Local Football Star His Scholarship
At the last
minute, NCAA decides to reinstate Porter Lee Hill Jr.’s ticket
to Fresno State
By
Gene C. Johnson Jr.
Bulletin Staff Writer
Following
a mix-up regarding some high school transcripts that left his mother
on the verge of suing the school district, ex-Compton High gridiron
star Porter Lee Hill Jr. recently had his football scholarship to Fresno
State reinstated by the NCAA.
When asked about Hill’s reinstatement at Fresno State, Kara Helmig,
an athletics compliance coordinator at the university said: “I
can’t comment on that because it’s all covered by FERPA – the
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. I would have to pull his
academic records, and I am not at liberty to.”
Helmig later said: “Porter, until the first day of class, is
considered a prospective student/athlete by NCAA rules and, as such,
we are not permitted to comment on him at all.”
“Feb. 8 (2007), he signed a letter of intent. After he signed
that letter, everything went haywire,” said Hill’s mother,
Leanora Mitchell-Hill, 48, who is now on dialysis, putting off a kidney
operation in her effort
to establish her son’s eligibility at the university.
“We fought so hard,” Mitchell-Hill said. “For a year
and four months he just stood stagnant up there (in Fresno). They called
me Thursday morning (July 24) from Fresno State to say that the NCAA
finally cleared him.”
In one scouting report, the younger Hill, a 6’4”, 275-pound
defensive linemen, was ranked the fourth-best prep defensive tackle
in California. In leading Compton High to an 8-4 record in 2006, Hill
was first-team All-Moore League and first-team All-Dream Team West
Coast.
Fresno State Head Football Coach Pat Hill, on the team’s Website,
called the ex-Compton High star “a powerful, strong aggressive
player. We love the way he controls the line of scrimmage in the middle.
With his passion and work ethic and physical skills, he should become
an excellent college player.”
Still, Hill’s potential has yet to come to fruition.
“In my opinion, someone messed up at the (school) district,” said
Compton Unified School District trustee Joel Estrada. “The parent
was being led to believe that her son is going to be taken care of,
that her son is in good hands. We, of course, were made of aware of
this once the child was told his scholarship was in jeopardy – that’s
when the mother came to the (school) board (in July).”
Those “hands,” Mitchell-Hill claimed, belonged to ex-Assistant
Superintendent Robert Nero, whose contract was not renewed by the school
board and served his last day with the district June 30. Nero could
not be reached for comment.
“He (Nero) never provided them (Fresno State) with the information
they needed,” said Estrada before later saying: “The questions
they (Fresno State) had were very specific. We found out about this
at the tail end.”
According to Mitchell-Hill, the NCAA sent a letter in either May or
June to Compton High that contained about 30 questions.
“Compton High sat on that letter for almost 30 days,” she
said. “I
had no way of knowing that Nero was no longer with the school district.
He was in charge of keeping me informed, that everything would be fine.”
Estrada said the school district sent Fresno State at a letter about
three weeks ago in an attempt to answer questions such as verifying
classes and when specific classes were taken.
According to Mitchell-Hill, while her son was preparing for football
training camp at Fresno State some time last year, school officials
there notified her that five English and math classes Hill had taken
at an adult school in Compton were not acceptable. The classes, she
said, were taken to make up for poor grades.
“Now, some kind of way, we found out that somebody in the office
at Compton High sent incomplete transcripts (to Fresno State),” she
said. “The NCAA (also) told me that they (Compton High) had sent
six transcripts. I was going to go to an attorney and file a lawsuit
because I was just getting tired of it, (but) I haven’t decided
on that yet.”
She was told by some friends of the family to ask for assistance from
Compton school trustee Micah Ali, who like Estrada said someone in
the school district – during the previous administration -- simply
dropped the ball in respect to providing the proper transcripts.
After meeting Mitchell-Hill, Ali said he began working diligently to
clear up the transcript discrepancies with the school district’s
administrative staff.
“I was going to make sure that the issue was being handled and
that the case was going to be closed,” Ali said.
“Those classes were not properly added to his college transcripts,
as they should have been,” he said. “Oh, yes, he took the
classes. He (Hill) was left out to dry.”
Mitchell-Hill said district officials spoke to some of the teachers
at the adult school who assured them that Hill was in attendance and
had earned passing grades.
At one point during the process about three weeks ago, Mitchell-Hill
said Ali made sure the proper information was sent overnight to Fresno
State officials.
Meanwhile, Mitchell-Hill said she enrolled her son at Fresno City College
and found him work at a warehouse to help pay “for his rent and
keeping him fed. Thank God I did that because now he ends up with enough
units to start school this year.”
“But nobody (at the school district) wanted to stand up for him,
no one wanted to admit anything,” she said. “We fought
back and forth. The NCAA denied him (reinstatement) three times. They
put
Deputy Superintendent Nero above (in charge) of this and they promised
me it would be fixed.”
“On the (July) 24, at 10 a.m., the NCAA cleared him,” she
said. “I
called my boy. When I spoke to him he started crying.”
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