Duncan: "People Are Making A Connection That Isn't There"

The Sheldon High School basketball program is reeling from the news that the Elk Grove Unified School District has disciplined its boys basketball coach Joey Rollings by telling him he cannot coach for the next four weeks. This followed a long investigation by EGUSD into numerous CIF rules violations by the Huskies' program.

The school enrolled as many as seven new basketball transfers this year but principal Paula Duncan said Thursday that wasn't the reason the school district evoked its sanctions.

"The transfers are a separate issue," Duncan said. "people are making a connection that isn't there."

She explained the District was told by a parent at another high school that a Sheldon parent encouraged them to enroll their son at Sheldon.

"That's undue influence," Duncan explained.

"We also had a parent talk to a kid from another school who was in our gym. That's undue influence," she added.

There was also a couple other incidents that Duncan discussed that according to the District's investigation were examples of undue influence.

Now those findings are in the offices of Sac-Joaquin Section commissioner Pete Saco for possible further sanctions against the Sheldon program.

"We're going to have to move on," Duncan said. "We have to own it."

She says all the transfers followed the rules of open enrollment, however at least three players have not yet been cleared to play this season for the Huskies.

"We will need to clean up a few things around here like following up on registrations,"Duncan added.

She said the fact her school's basketball program has been so successful, winning the last four Section Division I championships, wasn't the reason for the school district investigation.

"No matter the record, if you are not following rules, you should be disciplined," Duncan said. "We're in the business of teaching the kids to follow rules."

Sheldon opened the Delta River League schedule Wednesday night by losing by 41 points to Folsom. On Friday, they'll take on pre-season favorite Jesuit.