Last week, Hahnville High School all but secured its playoff spot in the Class 5A football playoffs with a gritty win at Central Lafourche — and its postseason outlook just got a whole lot more interesting.
Hahnville senior quarterback Andrew Robison has been officially ruled eligible to play through arbitration, a decision confirmed by the St. Charles Parish Public School District Monday evening.
Robison was ruled athletically ineligible by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) in August, as result of an investigation triggered by accusations by Robison’s former school, Vandebilt Catholic, that Hahnville recruited Robison illegally and that the Robison family had not made a “bona fide” move into the Hahnville school district. Hahnville was also fined and Tigers head coach Nick Saltaformaggio was suspended for the first four games of the season.
Making the matter all the more controversial was that Robison’s departure from Vandebilt followed the school’s decision to let the contract with his father, Drew Robison, expire. The elder Robison was the head basketball and an assistant football coach at the school.
But an arbitrator overturned the decision, and declared Hahnville and Saltaformaggio committed no wrongdoings.
“The previous rulings and sanctions issued by the LHSAA executive director and upheld by the Executive Committee to student-athlete Andrew Robison, Coach Saltaformaggio and Hahnville High School have been overturned by the arbitrator,” said St. Charles Parish Public Schools spokeswoman Stevie Crovetto in a statement released Monday night. “The arbitrator ruled that the finding of illegal recruitment is arbitrary and capricious and that the family did complete a bona fide move. During this time, the school has sought a fair, unbiased hearing through arbitration and we are extremely thankful that the arbitrator ruled on the facts surrounding the case.”
Robison was sidelined for Hahnville’s scrimmage, jamboree and the first nine weeks of the prep regular season. His appeal of the decision was denied and a compromise proposal presented by both Hahnville and Vandebilt Catholic to the LHSAA was also reportedly rejected.
But it appears his long wait to play for the Tigers is finally over — Robison is eligible to play on Friday night when the Tigers take the field at H.L. Bourgeois.
“Throughout this lengthy process, Hahnville High School has maintained its innocence and has worked through the proper channels established by LHSAA through an appeal and request for arbitration,” Crovetto said. “The school has strived to follow the procedures outlined by LHSAA, despite the lack of due process afforded to the school, the withholding of requested information, and unsuccessful attempts in working with LHSAA and the LHSAA Executive Committee for a resolution, Crovetto said.
“We are thankful that we can move forward knowing that the correct decision has been rendered on all accounts and we can continue to focus on what matters most, our students, our school and our community.”
According to the arbitrator’s ruling, the LHSAA “bona fide” change of residence rule lists five facts that must exist for it to be considered valid and that all five were established by the Robisons. She also dismissed the LHSAA’s argument that the move was made solely for the purpose of establishing athletic eligibility for the senior at Hahnville by noting the move was prompted by Drew Robison’s dismissal and the resulting need to transfer Andrew Robison to a public school.
She refuted the argument that the Hahnville jersey Robison wore at a photo shoot for Louisiana Football Magazine was a special inducement, as Vandebilt Catholic coach Jeremy Atwood admitted to LHSAA investigators he would not give Robison a Vandebilt Catholic jersey for the shoot because the latter already said he was transferring to Hahnville, and because Robison had already applied to Hahnville before accepting the jersey.
“Lending Andrew the jersey was not an inducement; it was an attempt to solve a problem created by the fact that the photo would be taken when Andrew would be eligible to play for one school but published when he was playing for another,” according to the arbitrator’s findings.
The addition of Robison to the HHS lineup is as significant as one might imagine given the attention his case has received statewide. He established himself as one of the state’s top prep players while playing at Vandebilt and his addition to Hahnville was expected to cement the Tigers as a prime contender to return to the Class 5A championship game.
Hahnville is 4-5 this season, and a win Friday night would even its record and likely place the team around the 20th seed in the state playoffs.
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