District investigation alleges Riverside Poly boys’ basketball violated CIF rules

The CIF Southern Section office received an investigative report from the Riverside Unified School District in December detailing multiple violations of CIF rules related to Riverside Poly High’s boys’ basketball program.

The Southern Section announced Wednesday that Poly was placed on probation, barred from this season’s playoffs and losing all games for three seasons from 2019-20 to 2021-2022.

According to a synopsis reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, “Former head coach Yancy Dodson admitted that since 2018 he and other members of the local youth basketball community have participated in a program that involved submitting forged documents to the district in order to obtain residency within the boundaries to build at Poly.”

A message left on Dodson’s voicemail requesting comment was not returned.

A parent confirmed Thursday that Dodson assigned the family an address in the poly attendance limit for their son to accommodate, and that the address appears to have been used more than once.

The report stated, “Dodson claimed he did not believe his actions violated the CIF eligibility rules for student transfers to Poly or the district.”

Dodson left coaching at the end of last season and is still a district teacher. The report said that “there was no credible evidence” that principal Darel Hansen or athletic director Jim Vaughan participated in the program to get ineligible students into poly.

Poly went 23-6 last season with a strong group of freshmen that has since broken up. The team is 17-10 this season.

A spokeswoman for the Riverside Unified School District said in an email Thursday, “Due to the privacy rights of students and employees, the district is not releasing further details at this time. The district has taken appropriate corrective action to prevent a recurrence of the violations.”

A previous statement from Riverside Unified said: “The District strives to comply with all CIF rules and has taken proactive steps to notify CIF of the allegations and the ongoing investigation, and has affirmed that we will Don’t tolerate rules.”