Hamilton high school, located in Chandler, Ariz., is known as one of the best football programs not only in the state, but in the nation. Although they are statistically an exceptional team, their credibility has come under fire recently due to their recruiting methods. 

At the high school level, there is no recruiting of any form allowed, meaning that coaches cannot offer athletes from any schools any incentives, such as money or playing time, to transfer to the coaches school. This has always been a strict rule that the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) has upheld. At the beginning of the school year, the Hamilton football defensive coordinator, Tim Doughtery, was caught sending messages via Twitter to a player from Cesar Chavez High School, in South Phoenix. Allegedly, the messages contained compliments from the coach and praised the players’ work. Doughtery was caught after the Cesar Chavez Athletic Director and former OHS athletic director, Lenny Doerfler, sent screenshots of the message to the AIA. Originally, Doughtery was suspended three games, put on administrative leave, and the team was not allowed to compete in the postseason. After weeks of Hamilton trying to convince the AIA to overturn their decision of keeping the Huskies out of postseason, on Aug. 30 the decision was appealed, allowing them to have a full season.

“I don’t think coaches from other schools should be able to use money or other incentives to get players to come play for their school but teams like Hamilton, Saguaro, and Chandler will always be able to bring in high recruits just because of their reputation and winning culture,” said Mason Steele, junior. 

It is very explicitly stated that recruiting in high school is not permitted. Although it was not directly stated whether or not the coach was trying to recruit the player, some question why he was reaching out to a player from a different school in the first place. 

“If it was a smaller school the decision wouldn’t have been overturned. Hamilton is one of the biggest and richest schools and football programs in the state,” Steele said. 

It is currently being questioned whether or not the methods in which Hamilton and other big name programs in the state are allowed by the AIA or not. 

“The way they recruit is just not fair to other schools because they can get whoever they want but schools like us [OHS] only get our zone,” said Nathan Bayus, junior.

With the decision to allow Hamilton to participate in postseason, it leaves questions on whether or not other schools would have a chance to make it to the region championship and even the state championship. OHS is a 6A divisional school, like Hamilton, and often encounters powerhouse teams in the 6A state championship. The choice to allow Hamilton to still play might be detrimental to OHS’s football season. 

“The only way it would affect us is if we played them in the open division of the playoffs so we will have to see how the season goes,” Steele said.

Although OHS might not be directly affected by the decision to allow Hamilton to participate in post season competition, it does affect other schools looking for a spot in the playoffs. 

“They usually make open every year so if they really don’t get to go to playoffs it leaves a new team to make the open division so it maybe gives a new team a chance in the open,” said Remi Johnson, senior