Panel Orders Loyola To Trial on Flagrant Foul of Hoops Player

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Loyola Marymount University may go to trial against a former student who claims his $35,000-per-year financial aid package was terminated in order to kick him off the school’s basketball team.


In sending the case back to Los Angeles Superior Court, a lengthy appellate opinion filed last month called the process by which Jean-Paul Afif was removed from the team “a sham.”


Afif joined the Lions for the 1999-2000 season on a full scholarship. He claims he was forced off the team the next year when a new coach, Steve Aggers, came on in April 2000 and wanted to recruit his own talent.


“He was railroaded out of the university and out of his scholarship in violation of NCAA rules,” said Thomas Weiss, Afif’s attorney. “They put this young man through an awful lot of unnecessary pressure and stress and strain.”


Weiss said Afif has not sought a specific dollar figure in damages, leaving a jury to decide. But, he added, “there are individuals involved here who should have known better, and that opens the university to punitive damages.”


Harold Bridges, a partner at Bridges & Bridges representing Loyola and Aggers, did not return calls.


According to the opinion, Aggers tried to cancel Afif’s financial aid three times during the summer of 2000. Afif managed to renew his scholarship twice but did not appeal the third decision because he said it came after an NCAA mandated deadline.


In court filings, Afif said Aggers threatened to “make plaintiff’s life miserable if he did not leave Loyola.”


Aggers is also alleged in court papers to have encouraged Afif to join a July “shootout” basketball competition at which recruiters from non-Division 1 teams at other schools would attend. Shortly thereafter, Afif received a scholarship termination letter for violating NCAA rules against being recruited by one school while under scholarship to another, and holding a restaurant job while on scholarship.


Afif claims he did not appeal the school’s decision because NCAA rules require notification of non-renewal be filed before July 1. Instead, he transferred for one semester to the University of North Dakota.


He later returned to Loyola without a basketball scholarship, graduating with a business degree in May 2002. Three months later, he sued Loyola and Aggers for breach of contract and fraud.


A Los Angeles Superior Court agreed with the school that Afif violated NCAA rules. But the 2nd Appellate District panel reversed that decision.

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