Elmhurst College to vacate football and volleyball championships

ECL:

Four CCIW championships, including the 2012 football title, are likely to be vacated by EC as punishment for awarding athletic scholarships to student-athletes from 2012 to 2015, said school officials on Nov. 1.

In addition to the football title, the Bluejays are also likely to lose their 2012 and 2013 volleyball championships, as well as their 2015-2016 wrestling title.

The highly celebrated football championship was the team’s first CCIW crown since 1980 and only their third in school history.

Tim Lester was the Bluejays’ head football coach during the 2012 season and is currently in his first season as the head coach at Western Michigan University.

Lester declined to comment about the NCAA ruling; however, he spoke with The Leader for a feature story about the 2012 season this past summer, saying that it was the proudest accomplishment of his coaching career.

“It was a great year,” said Lester. “We had success that hadn’t been had [at EC] before and we had been working hard for four seasons, really five seasons, to get it going.”

Lester fondly remembered the way the 2012 team elevated the reputation of EC football.

NCAA:

Elmhurst did not monitor its athletics program and its director of financial aid acted unethically when she awarded scholarships based on athletics criteria to student-athletes, resulting in a lack of institutional control, according to a decision by the Division III Committee on Infractions.