Point Loma to Check Possible Violations

SAN DIEGO —  San Diego Section officials Friday requested Point Loma High School to investigate allegations that girls’ basketball Coach Lee Trepanier visited Terri Mann, one of the country’s best players, before she enrolled at the school 3 1/2 years ago and purchased rings for his players after winning the state championship last season.

The allegations may be a violation of section rules, said Kendall Webb, section commissioner.

Webb, reacting to a story published Friday in The Times, said he wrote a letter to Point Loma Principal Barbara Brooks, asking her to examine the allegations. He said any sanctions against the team would only involve past seasons.

“If indeed there was a violation, I don’t know what we’d do about it, when it happened almost four years ago,” Webb said.

According to The Times’ story, Terri Mann’s mother, Willie Mann, said that Trepanier visited her home just after her daughter had finished the eighth grade and was living in the Hoover High School area. After that meeting, Mrs. Mann said she gave Terri the choice of attending Point Loma or Hoover. Terri eventually chose Point Loma.

“If what Mrs. Mann says is true, that could be interpreted as an opportunity for recruitment,” Webb said. “. . . That could be a violation.”

Webb said Trepanier called him Friday to offer an explanation.

“Coach Trepanier told me it’s not true he went over to their house before she enrolled,” Webb said, “except that during that summer (between Mann’s eighth- and ninth-grade year) when she was playing on his summer league team--which is legal--he took her home occasionally after a game because she didn’t have a car. And one time he brought her into the house because she twisted an ankle and he counseled and told her mother about it. Outside of that, he said he did not visit the home.”

The Times story also said that Trepanier gave his players championship rings. According to section rules, no high school athlete can accept a league championship award exceeding $50. If the cost of the individual rings exceeded $50, each player receiving a ring would be ineligible for play after that point, the rules state.

Trepanier could not be reached for comment Friday night.

The article said Mrs. Mann said that Trepanier helped her family move into Point Loma’s district when Terri wanted to quit Point Loma’s Naval Junior ROTC program after her freshman year. Participation in the ROTC program was the only way Mann was eligible to attend Point Loma because she was living in the Hoover area. Hoover did not offer an ROTC program.

According to Mrs. Mann, Trepanier went to their home and told them they were moving. He then helped them find an apartment in the Point Loma area so that Mann could continue to go to school there.

Webb said Friday that he did not believe that helping the Mann family move was a violation.

“If she (Terri) is a student at Point Loma and the parent and the girl want to stay at Point Loma, there’s no violation in the coach helping them find a place to live in the Point Loma area,” Webb said. “I didn’t see anything to indicate they wanted to leave Point Loma.”

During Mann’s freshman year at Point Loma, the San Diego Unified School District, responding to complaints from Hoover High Athletic Director John Johnson, investigated the legality of Mann’s enrollment at Point Loma.

Wayne DeBate, SDUSD athletic manager, said he checked Point Loma records and determined that Mann was legal attending the high school. He said that his investigation in 1983 did not examine whether Mann faced “undue pressure” from Trepanier to attend Point Loma.