NCAA violations occurred in West Chester swimming and diving program

The West Chester athletics department committed NCAA violations when it maintained financial and managerial control over a local sports club and allowed a coaching staff member to coach at the athletics-sponsored club, according to an agreement released by the Division II Committee on Infractions. 

The NCAA enforcement staff and university agreed that over the course of several years, the school's athletics department sponsored a local sports club that included prospective men's and women's swimming and diving student-athletes, in violation of NCAA rules. The athletics department maintained financial control of the local sports club, and athletics department staff members engaged in coaching and managerial duties on an ongoing basis. 

Initially, a former swimming and diving head coach owned and operated the local sports club. However, the former athletics director brought the swimming club into the athletics department and aligned the club with its operating procedures for camps and clinics. Around that same time, the athletics department began annually transferring $25,000 of the club's profits to the university's athletics department budgets. The athletics department also hired a coach for the swim club who also served on the coaching staff at West Chester. 

The enforcement staff and university also agree that as a result of the scope and nature of the violations, the school failed to adequately monitor its athletics programs when it did not ensure that the structure and management of a local sports club that operated on the school's campus continually operated within applicable NCAA rules. The parties agree that both violations are major. 

The committee and university agreed on the following penalties:

• Two years of probation.
• A $25,000 fine.
• The university will delay the recruitment of prospects in men's and women's swimming and diving by one year.
• The university will not rent its swimming and diving facilities to a local sports club for two years.

Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from NCAA member schools and conferences and members of the public. The committee members who reviewed this case are John David Lackey, attorney; Jessica Chapin, director of athletics at American International; David Hansburg, director of athletics at Colorado School of Mines; Richard Loosbrock, faculty athletics representative at Adams State; Jason Sobolik, assistant athletics director for compliance and student services at Minnesota State University Moorhead; Melissa Reilly, associate commissioner at the East Coast Conference; and Leslie Schuemann, senior woman administrator/deputy commissioner at the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.