Haskell placed on probation by NAIA

Failure to file paperwork on time means Haskell Indian Nations University will spend the 2002-2003 school year on NAIA probation.

Phil Homeratha, HINU’s interim athletic director, filed a declaration of intent about the number of sports the school would field in NAIA championships about 10 days after the May 1 deadline.

Homeratha blamed the delay on his unfamiliarity with NAIA documents and uncertainty about funding. Haskell operates under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Interior. Homeratha has been serving as interim AD for less than a year.

“I wasn’t sure what we were going to try to do in terms of Title IX and all that,” Homeratha said. “And a lot of it was new to me. Last year was our first year to have all our programs at the NAIA level.”

Homeratha, who also coaches women’s basketball, faced a couple of administrative dilemmas.

“I’d like to start women’s golf,” Homeratha said, “but I don’t know if we have the money to do it, also baseball. We had a club team last year, but do we want it in the fold? The answer was no because of the budget.”

Officially, Haskell offered women’s golf last year, but the school didn’t have a team because not a single student went out for the sport. HINU did have a men’s golf team, though.

In addition to golf, Haskell will fund teams in football, men’s soccer, women’s softball, men’s and women’s track and cross country and men’s and women’s basketball during the 2002-2003 school year.

Homeratha said he was surprised his tardiness resulted in the school going on probation for a full year.

“We didn’t violate any major things,” he said. “We were just late. I thought they would just give us a warning, but apparently it’s standard procedure.”

Haskell wasn’t the only school penalized for failure to file a declaration of intent on time. At least a dozen other NAIA schools were ticketed for the same violation.

Although the late filing isn’t a major infraction, HINU is nevertheless one probation away from a more serious penalty. Under NAIA by-laws, two probations will suspend a school from participation in NAIA post-season competition.

According to a spokesperson at NAIA headquarters in Olathe, 10 schools are currently on the suspended list.