PIAA autocrat Lombardi calls Equity Summit “rogue,’ “divisive,” echoes of Brad Cashman, who created most of these problems

 … Stan Bem cared more for power than for athletes

When an organization has no accountability and no oversight, particularly when it is one that administers young people in educational institutions, problems are certain to ensue. That has occurred with the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) over the past 50 years, and probably before that.

Consequently, it has been in trouble over the years. Yet, because no one looks over their shoulders, it becomes an autocratic, practically dictatorial group. However, now the people in power at the grassroots have rebelled, and the leader of the PIAA, executive director Bob Lombardi, is shaking in his boots. Things are so bad that a group that is meeting next week in State College to push for reform — or dissolution — of the PIAA.

The Equity Summit

The summit of schools across Pennsylvania will attract administrators and other educators who are interested in fairness in athletics in the state. They are outraged that public schools have to compete with private schools that have no boundaries, while their athletes must come from within a confined, geographical area.

Lombardi has not been invited to the meeting, and he has called it a “rogue” group. But, he is worried because of the strength of the group. Laurel High School superintendent Len Rich of New Castle has not called for an overthrow of Lombardi or the PIAA, but he has placed the issue in stark terms, at least in Lombardi’s eyes. “"I can't speak for all 108 schools, but what I can tell you is, the goal of this equity summit is to build consensus on reform, but if we are sitting here a year from now and the PIAA is sitting on its hands, there's going to be a call for doing it ourselves," Rich told the Harrisburg Patriot-News on Tuesday. "And [if] that would mean forming a separate organization. I think the attendees are coming, knowing full well, that if reform doesn't occur, something else has to."

Rich said that he anticipates that more then 260 educators would be present at the summit, which is hoped could spur schools from throughout the state to continue this quest to have equity in the postseason playoffs, something that the PIAA has botched over the years.

And the ghost of Brad Cashman looms over the meeting … and may be the source of Lombardi’s Trumpian use of rogue and divisive to describe anyone who disagrees with him.

The Brad Cashman dictatorial saga

The state legislators attempted to secure some accountability of the PIAA 20 years ago, but failed. The hearings provided an insight into an organization that a former coach called like dealing with the infamous “Soup Nazi” on the former Seinfeld sitcom. "You go, you do whatever they say in the manner they say it, and in a precise way, or no soup, or in this case, no justice," legendary former Williamsport High School Coach Pete White told the Pa. Senate in hearings in 1998, according to The Daily Call. “PIAA is prosecutor, judge, and jury.”

Brad Cashman was the executive director at the time, and he was the target of the hearings into what legislators called “20 years of corruption in the PIAA.” Cashman had earned an accounting degree from the College of William & Mary but did not want to practice in that area. He returned to Pa. and became a teacher and coach, then a PIAA official. But, he was also a cagey politician and learned how to grease the palms of people in power.

That kissing-up to those in power at the PIAA led to his being hired as “an assistant executive director and business manager in 1980,” according to a fawning story in the Patriot-News in 2011. There, he became a politician himself, endearing himself to the autocrats in the PIAA organization. He became executive director in 1993, and stayed there for 18 years in a tumultuous reign.

1998 hearings led by the wrong man: Jubelirer

The legislators had a great opportunity to bring reform in 1998, but they failed for one major reason. The person leading it was a rogue politician himself who is still controversial — and ineffective. His name was Bob Jubelirer, and he was then President Pro Tem of the Pa. Senate. Jubelirer was very controversial, and still is. Today, in his 80s, he is a member of the Penn State board of trustees, a minority group that is dedicated to bringing back Joe Paterno’s statue to the PSU campus. That despite the fact that the 2017 trial revealed that Paterno knew about Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse before 2001. However, Jubelirer was voted out of office in 2006 because of a midnight pay-raise for legislators scandal, one that outraged voters.

However, his failure in 1998 was unfortunate since they had the goods on the PIAA but failed in their attempt to bring oversight to the board. He was the wrong leader because his concern was too narrowly-focused. The PIAA state championships had moved to Mansion Park in Altoona from Hersheypark Stadium, and it proved to be a great venue for them. Mansion Park had an all-weather surface, unlike that in Hershey. Altoona Area High School had built a great press box to go along with the all-weather surface and beautiful seating. It was a first-class facility, but the PIAA voted to move back to Hershey.

At the time, Cashman was accused of accepting money from the interests in the Harrisburg/Hershey/Eastern Pa. area that wanted to return to the Hershey site. That was never proven, another failure of the investigation and leadership that failed to employ people who are experts in this area. Part of it too was that the Eastern schools, which now dominate the PIAA after the addition of schools in the city of Philadelphia, felt that the West, led by the Western Pa. Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL), dominated the PIAA. A coach in Wilkes-Barre said this to the Senate about the East-West animus, and this was 20 years ago. "I'm not trying to make this a war between the east and the west," said John Quinn, basketball coach at Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre, said to the Morning Call. "(But) we have schools in the east that never see the light of day."

So, Jubelirer’s animus was directed at the PIAA for one issue, whereas the problems were deeper than that, which was another reason that the hearings produced nothing.

PIAA secrecy: Autocracy, Inc.

Jubelirer was right about many things. In a Senate hearing at the Altoona Ramada in 1998, one of the PIAA supporters defended the organization. The Pro Tem exploded, “"You're doing one hell of a good job," Jubelirer shouted, according to the Pocono Record. "It is the most secret, arrogant organization that I've ever seen in my 24 years of public service." However, other organizations with some credibility came out against the autocratic nature of Cashman’s PIAA. According to the Morning Call, a former president of the former president of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers' Association decried the secrecy and lack of accountability of the PIAA.

Bill Northrop as co-publisher of the Observer Reporter newspaper in Washington, Washington County, and argued that the PIAA should be following the same open government laws at the time, ones that governed school boards and city councils, the Morning Call wrote. “The PIAA is making decisions which are public in nature, affect the lives of our young people, expend taxpayer dollars and determine the conduct of public employees," Northrop told the Senate.

Cashman told the Patriot-News that he considered resigning during those hearings. "But if I resigned, then they would have won," Cashman says. "We certainly had not done anything wrong, be it as an organization or me personally. But we were just subject to some political bowling that as it turned out proved we had not done anything wrong. We had not done anything illegal." Translated, that means that the Pa. Senators failed to approach this properly. Instead of looking at it legally, they should have regarded it from the eyes of the athletes who are competing for district and then state titles.

That is what the “rogue” summit is doing, trying to establish fairness in the state playoffs.

Stan Bem, major enabler of Cashman, not the athletes

As the state hearings in Altoona started, the legislators were smacked in the face by the actions of the PIAA board, led by a former Cambria County man and graduate of Bishop Carroll High School. Stan Bem was the president of the PIAA, and he had led the charge to support Cashman.

According to the Pocono Record, “The senators were smacked in the face by the PIAA’s arrogance the minute they hit the door Tuesday morning and were handed a copy of the story in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that reported the unthinkable: The Board of Control, on April 3, had rewarded PIAA executive director and investigation target Brad Cashman with a five-year contract extension calling for an annual salary of $100,256 with four-percent annual increases through 2003.”

The paper continued that Bem turned a half-hour testimony into a four-hour hate-fest. “Most incredulous to the Senate committee was the fact that Bem, knowing the current climate, signed Cashman’s sweetheart deal — even though Bem made a motion in January trying to take away the PIAA executive director’s ability to select sites without Board of Control agreement after Cashman switched the football championships from Altoona and gave them to Hershey.” Essentially, Cashman had made the move to Hershey without asking the board of control for approval. What Bem did is stick it to District 6, where the school that he represented, Purchase Line, was located. Altoona is located in District 6, and it was a prestigious honor to host the state championships.

“How can you justify this?” Jubelirer screamed at the then principal of Purchase Line. “The people of Pennsylvania want to know why you didn’t stand up and object. There was a wonderful opportunity to make (organizational) changes. This contract did not have to be signed.”

In short, it is administrators like Bem who have created the PIAA monstrosity. They are more worried about power, than the athletes they represent. That is why this summit is taking place.