ADDISON — The 13-5A district executive committee found Oak Cliff Faith Family and its girls basketball coaches guilty of recruiting violations, a lack of transparency and withholding information regarding the 13 players who transferred to the UIL charter school during the offseason after four-time state champion Andrea Robinson was hired away from DeSoto to be the head coach.
After a hearing that lasted nearly six hours, the DEC sent the matter on to the University Interscholastic League’s state executive committee to determine the punishment. Robinson and Faith Family assistant coaches Kadi Creel and Jordan Jones were found guilty of the same violations as the school.
Faith Family can appeal the DEC’s ruling to the state executive committee, but history suggests that it will be hard to get overturned. The state executive committee denied 85% of the 197 appeals that it heard over the last four school years.
Faith Family athletic director Marcus Canonico denied several times that Faith Family had committed any violations, and Robinson said at one point that she saw no red flags. After the UIL moved Faith Family from 4A to 5A in realignment, it joined a district with seven Dallas ISD schools, and the DEC came down hard on the charter school, which has open enrollment and an attendance zone that covers all of Dallas ISD.
There will be a separate DEC meeting or meetings to determine eligibility for the girls basketball players who transferred, including four recruits who are ranked among the top 100 players in the nation. The UIL announced Thursday that there were 13 transfers this offseason, after Faith Family added no girls basketball transfers last season.
Under UIL rules, a DEC does not have the authority to suspend coaches and can only issue a reprimand. If the DEC decides that a suspension should be considered, the committee can transfer the report of violations to the UIL’s state executive committee, which is what happened Thursday.
The state executive committee has handed out harsh punishments in the past.
In October 2022, the UIL suspended Duncanville boys coach David Peavy and then-Duncanville girls coach LaJeanna Howard for one year. Duncanville was also stripped of its 2022 state title as the UIL ruled that it used an ineligible player whose family sought a court’s decision to allow him to keep playing, and the school’s girls team was not allowed to compete in the playoffs that season because of a rules violation.
In 2019, former Duncanville girls coach Cathy Self-Morgan was issued a three-year suspension from coaching and a public reprimand after the UIL ruled that she was guilty of recruiting violations. A three-year suspension is the maximum length that the UIL state executive committee can issue.
A DEC does have the authority to keep a team from competing for a district title and to deny participation in UIL contests beyond the district level for a period of up to three years. But the 13-5A committee decided instead to send the matter to the UIL to determine the consequences for Faith Family.
The UIL, which governs public school extracurriculars in Texas, prohibits students from transferring for athletic purposes. On Monday, the organization approved a proposal allowing its state executive committee to investigate schools with an inordinate number of Previous Athletic Participation Forms for new students, which determine a student’s eligibility to play varsity sports, but that rule won’t got into effect until Aug. 1, 2025.
The most prominent transfers are five-star junior forward Amari Byles and four-star junior combo guard Amayah “Sunshine” Garcia from DeSoto, four-star senior forward Joy Egbuna from Mansfield Lake Ridge and four-star sophomore point guard Finley Chastain from national champion Montverde Academy in Florida. Chastain is the No. 2 recruit in Texas and the No. 18 recruit in the nation in the Class of 2027, according to ESPN’s HoopGurlz, Byles and Garcia are No. 17 and No. 49 in the nation, respectively, in the Class of 2026 and Egbuna is rated the 97th-best player in America in the Class of 2025.
Sisters Milania, Gianna, Natalia and Nadia Jordan from Southlake Carroll have also transferred to Faith Family after Milania and Gianna were all-state selections last season for a 6A regional semifinalist team. Milania tore her ACL in the spring, and when she will be able to start playing again remains to be seen.
Faith Family also added freshman Kelenna Ozumba, who had been in Allen ISD. She reported an offer from Ole Miss two months ago. Allen girls basketball coach Stephanie Shaw testified that one of Ozumba’s AAU teammates enrolled at Faith Family and convinced Ozumba to go there.
UIL girls teams started practice Wednesday, but Faith Family has not provided PAPF forms for two of its transfers. Testimony indicated that those two athletes had been participating in workouts with the team, which is not allowed without an approved PAPF.
Evidence was presented that accused Creel of having impermissible contact with Garcia and her parents at an AAU game and of giving her a bag with a Faith Family shirt and other school items. New DeSoto coach Jeffery Chatman, who replaced Robinson, told the DEC he had a photo of the encounter and passed his phone around for the members to see.
DeSoto also alleged that Robinson and Creel had a conversation with Byles and her family before becoming coaches at Faith Family.
Lincoln girls basketball coach Ashley Greer said that Jones reached out to one of his players on social media and said they wanted to get in contact with the athlete about the upcoming season. The athlete is still at Lincoln.
A list of the 13 transfers and the AAU teams they have played for was presented to the DEC. It showed that some of the girls had played together or in the same AAU organization in the past.
The Faith Family representatives claimed that a lot of the testimony and evidence was hearsay. But at one point, Canonico talked about how the school had hired great coaches, had great athletic programs and had a lot to offer new students, and the DEC said that was an indication that it had used that to recruit.
Canonico said that there were only seven players on last season’s team, and that only one remains after four graduated. But the roster for last season’s 16-16 team on MaxPreps lists 15 players.
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