For more than three years, expelled University of Southern California (USC) football player Matt Boermeester – embroiled in a Title IX assault accusation case – has been fighting the state legal system just for the chance to have his side heard on a federal level.

Despite a small and rare legal victory, the one-time National Football League (NFL) hopeful says he has a long way to go in his quest for due process in a life derailed by what he deems an unjust “male bias witch hunt.”

“The truth is important because the consequences for me have been so devastating. The truth is all I am seeking here,” Boermeester told Fox News this week. “You don’t realize, you are a kid at the time, that USC is trying to protect itself and its hundreds of millions of Title IX funding, not you as the student.”

Late last month, the California Court of Appeal reversed the trial court decision and overturned Boermeester’s January 2017 expulsion, ruling that his Title IX proceeding was “unfair.”

This paves the way for Boermeester, now 26, to forge ahead with a seven-count federal lawsuit against the prominent university on the grounds of “breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, negligence and selective enforcement of Title IX,” the federal legislation that outlaws gender-based discrimination in the education system and obliges institutions to pursue investigations around sexual misconduct.

Andrew Miltenberg, an attorney for Boermeester, said it “is clear that USC used a flawed investigation method which included denying Matt the opportunity of real-time cross-examination of witnesses.”

“The next step is to push forward with the federal lawsuit, which has been filed, but we had to put it on hold while the California State Court gave us the right to move forward, which it just did. That suit will go into a discovery which will allow us to depose various witnesses and get to see what was in their (USC) records, which will help us prove this was unfounded, and expose the larger biases in the system,” he continued. “There is a long way to go; we have fought for four years just to get this far. The ruling was an important beginning, but it is not the end.”

Boermeester, then 22, was a member of the USC football team, who kicked the game-winning field goal for USC at the 2017 Rose Bowl.

But just days after the victory, and his first night off crutches after a post-season surgery, Boermeester’s life unraveled.

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According to court documents, in the early hours of Jan. 21, 2017, two USC students heard some commotion and allegedly observed – from a window – Boermeester put his hand on his then-girlfriend Zoe Katz’s neck and push her against a wall near her apartment. One of the students reported this incident to the USC men’s tennis coach – their father – which sparked an investigation, as required by law.

Five days later, Boermeester was charged with “intimate partner violence” – despite the fact that the alleged victim stated on multiple occasions that such conduct never occurred. The honors student was handed a letter informing him of the charges and immediately escorted off campus, ejected with just two classes to go before graduation, suddenly slapped with F’s for other subjects, dropped from the football team, and instantly deemed persona non grata.

“I wasn’t allowed to go to class, I wasn’t allowed to talk to my coaches or teammates, and my eligibility to play had expired. I was completely cut off from everything,” he said. “The school quickly sent me a bill for the two classes I had left; they had already made up their mind that I was guilty.”

The descriptions of the incident from eyewitnesses painted a picture of a rough physical altercation, yet Boermeester contended that he and his then-girlfriend were merely “playing around” and “roughhousing” by throwing McDonald’s fries at one another.

But those few moments have proven to be life-altering.

As a result of the expulsion, Boermeester was unable to complete the two classes needed to receive his degree from USC and unable to resume his role on the USC football team, resulting in irreparable damage to his academic career and derailing aspirations to play in the NFL.

“Based on nothing more than a third-party report by a non-witness–essentially a rumor that was easily and repeatedly disputed–a star athlete lost his education and his future career in the NFL,” Miltenberg continued. “That window of opportunity is very small for an athlete, and now it is gone. Professional sports is absolutely shut down for anyone with a sexual assault mark on their transcript. It doesn’t matter how good they are.”

Not only could Boermeester not get a look in from other NFL teams, but he was made to forgo a scholarship to another school because of the F grades and the financial hold from the two remaining classes.

“I couldn’t even get a try-out or go to a camp because of the stigma on my name,” the once prominent kicker asserted. “And I couldn’t even graduate.”

Moreover, Katz maintained that she was never abused or mistreated by her partner, but was informed the Title IX office was obligated to investigate and could proceed without her consent. In Boermeester’s words, his then-girlfriend tried to “speak up” on his behalf but was “threatened with tampering with an investigation” and treated as something of a battered victim.

Miltenberg also emphasized that the case against his client was “predicated on unlawful gender stereotypes and motivated by a desire to demonstrate publicly the University’s harsh stance against male perpetrators of sexual misconduct, based on nothing more than a third-party report by a non-witness.”

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As part of a court filing in the initial lawsuit, USC asserted that its investigation found Boermeester put his hands around Katz’s neck, “causing her to cough, and shoved her into a cinder block wall in the alley near her apartment at least twice” in the early hours of Jan. 21, 2017, and has staunchly maintained its position, citing surveillance video, in the case against Boermeester.

A representative for USC told Fox News in a statement that the school “disagree(s) with the appellate court’s decision and plan to appeal the case to the California Supreme Court.”

According to multiple attorneys interviewed by Fox News on the subject nationwide, more and more cases in a similar vein to Boermeester’s are now gaining traction in the justice system at a time when the Education Department is making sweeping changes to the way such investigations take place.

“The procedures at college campuses still stand out. Appeals like those in the recent Matt Boermeester case in California are becoming more common, as disturbingly deficient records reach appeals courts,” observed David Katz, a former assistant U.S. Attorney. “New rules encourage hearings by such standard, not a mere preponderance. New initiatives sent to campuses are a step in the right direction to try to get away from some colleges’ fawning acceptance and knee-jerk pursuit of accusations.”

Enacted in 1972, Title IX was initially designed to ensure that students have fair access to education without being discriminated against on the basis of sex. But decades later, the Department of Education started to clarify the law’s implications for on-campus sexual harassment and in 2011 – under the Obama administration – further defined that it is the responsibility of institutions of higher education “to take immediate and effective steps to end sexual harassment and sexual violence,” and threatened mass fines and the withholding of critical federal funding should schools fail to adequately fulfill Title IX responsibilities.

However, the controversy surrounding Boermeester’s case is just one of many being brought into the public limelight in the era of “Me Too,” contrasted with the notion of due process remains ripe for contentious debate.

Current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who cited the Boermeester case in her argument for revising federal guidance on campus sexual assault verdicts, recently imposed a number of changes intended to restore due process protections to students accused of wrongdoing. One of the new mandates will also put a stop to the practice of universities launching Title IX investigations without the permission of alleged victims. The department advocated that the changes will “balance the scales of justice on campuses across America.”

“Aside from the increased protections for legitimate victims of sexual misconduct, there were sorely needed protections implemented for those accused to ensure all people are afforded proper access to education,” explained California-based criminal defense attorney, Troy Slaten. “Much like prosecutors around the country, universities understand that students – most of whom are already straddled with staggering debt – don’t have the ability to fight a protracted court battle to vindicate their rights. Universities have nearly limitless resources to take cases through several layers of appeal. As we see in the Boermeester case, he’s been fighting since before 2017 when he was expelled. At that rate, even a win is a loss for him and makes other students feel that they may have rights but with no remedies.”

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While slated to go into effect for the fall semester, the changes have also garnered significant opposition and steep concerns that the reforms will take campuses back to a time when rape and sexual harassment was carried out with impunity, and subsequently, democratic attorneys from 17 states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit against DeVos in a bid to halt regulations passed last month restricting sexual misconduct cases falling under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination. The state of New York also submitted its own complaint to the Supreme Court earlier this month, and Democratic Presidential hopeful Joe Biden has pledged to reverse the amendments if elected to the top job in November.

“While I may never get those years back, I won’t stop fighting for the truth in the court of law — or for other young men who may find themselves in my circumstances,” Boermeester added.

Quique Setien was just as surprised as everyone else by his appointment as Barcelona coach.

“Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being here,” he confessed at his unveiling as Ernesto Valverde’s successor in January.

“Yesterday, I was walking past cows in my village. Today, I was at Barcelona’s training ground coaching the best players in the world.”

Editors’ Picks

Setien had been out of work since parting company with Real Betis last May, after an underwhelming 2018-19 campaign, and was poised to take charge of an Egyptian club when he received a most unexpected approach from the leaders of La Liga.

“When you’re out of work, waiting for an opportunity, you imagine [receiving an offer from] a team that’s down the bottom, in trouble,” he said. “It’s not normal to take over a team that’s first.”

Nothing at Barca is normal anymore, though. Chaos is now the default setting at Camp Nou.

Since Quique’s arrival just five months ago, there has been a social media scandal, allegations of theft and corruption, mass resignations at board level and a bitter dispute over pay-cuts provoked by the financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The coach would be forgiven for wondering if he’d erred in swapping the tranquility of Liencres for the anarchy of Barcelona.

Clearly, though, this is the opportunity of a lifetime for a man who has never lifted a major trophy. The only problem is that there’s no guarantee that he’ll win a title in Catalunya.

Barcelona may currently sit top of La Liga but they are just two points ahead of Real Madrid and Setien told reporters ahead of this weekend’s resumption of play, “I think that we have to win every game if we want to be champions.”

A perfect record looks a tall order, though, given the cloud of uncertainty already hanging over Camp Nou has darkened during the pandemic.

Also, all games between now and the end of the season will be played behind closed doors, while Barca’s results could even arguably be affected by the fact that teams will now be allowed to use five substitutes in a bid to protect players from the increased injury risks involved in returning to competitive football after such a lengthy lay-off and without a proper pre-season.

Indeed, Quique told the Las Palmas Interinsular Football Federation on YouTube, “I think this will do us more harm than good.

“Many games are resolved in the final minutes and with this rule change rivals will be able to have more fresh players in this phase of the match, when we tend to take advantage of their fatigue.”

That remains to be seen, of course. In theory, bigger clubs such as Barca should benefit enormously from being able to rotate stronger, deeper pools of players during a hectic schedule featuring 11 games in five weeks.

However, this is one of the weakest Barcelona sides of the modern era. Their current Liga tally of 58 points is the Blaugrana’s lowest haul from 27 games since 2007-08, when the wheels were falling off the Frank Rijkaard-led side that had won the Champions League just two years previously.

It was the bold and unexpected decision to hire Pep Guardiola which completely altered the history of the club and Barca are now hoping that an even more unexpected appointment might prompt a similarly spectacular U-turn.

Of course, Setien, an avid chess player, shares the same love of Johan Cruyff’s football philosophy as Guardiola.

The former Atletico and Racing Santander midfielder lined out against the Dutchman’s ‘Dream Team’ during his playing days and it changed his whole view of the game.

“I told Cruyff I’d have given my little finger to have played for his team,” Setien has previously admitted.

“And not just to play at Barcelona but for how they played, because I saw how the players enjoyed themselves.”

After Valverde’s more direct, pragmatic play, Setien immediately restored Barca’s traditional brand of possession football.

During his first game in charge, a 1-0 win over Granada, the Blaugrana completed 1,002 passes – the third-highest tally posted in La Liga since Opta began recording numbers.

However, what we have seen in his 11 games to date (seven wins, three defeats and one draw) is a style more similar to the sterile ‘tiki-taka’ that Guardiola despised than the short, sharp and incisive passing that the Catalan deployed to conquer Europe twice in three years.

As Messi damningly stated in an interview with Sport, during the break, “I never doubted the squad we have and I have no doubt that we can win all that remains, but not by playing in the way we were playing.

“Now, everyone has their opinion and they are all very respectable. Mine is based on the fact that I was lucky to play in the Champions League every year and I know that it is not possible to win it by playing as we have been playing.”

The hope, therefore, is that Setien has made good use of the time off and come up with a strategy that suits and satisfies Messi, who hasn’t scored a single goal away from home under the 61-year-old.

During his second game in charge, at Valencia, Setien employed a 3-5-2 but it proved a disaster, with Barca slumping to a dismal 2-0 defeat at Mestalla.

The senior players have, thus, proven resistant to any further experimentation with their tried-and-trusted 4-3-3. The net result is that Setien’s Barca is as offensively static and defensively vulnerable as Valverde’s.

The good news, of course, is that Luis Suarez is now fit to return to action, meaning Setien is in a position to field Barca’s ‘MSG’ attacking triumvirate for the first time since taking charge.

Until now, Suarez, Messi and Antoine Griezmann have started alongside one another on just 13 occasions since the latter’s arrival from Atletico Madrid last summer, and not once since losing a Supercopa de Espana game to the Rojiblancos in Valverde’s final game in charge, on January 9.

Suarez’s continued importance to Barca should not be overlooked. He may no longer be force of nature he once was but it is telling that despite playing just twice in 2020, only Messi has racked up more goals and assists than the Uruguayan this season.

Suarez’s return will not magically solve Barca’s problems going forward – this is also the worst season in terms of goals since 2007-08 – because the main issue remains getting the best out of Griezmann, who functions better as a support striker in a two-man attack.

Setien also has to make do with several midfielders who are clearly past their best (Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal and even the great Sergio Busquets) and shore up a defence that is conceding on average 1.19 goals a game – their worst ratio for nine seasons.

In short, Barca have just as many problems on the field right now as they do off it. And it is within this perfect storm that Setien is charged with finding solutions – and fast.

He has a contract until 2022 but it contains a clause that means he could be relieved of his duties after next year’s presidential election. So, in theory, Setien has 12 months to turn things around.

However, were Barca to finish the current campaign without a trophy, a scapegoat would be required to mask the failings of others higher up the food chain at Camp Nou.

Essentially, Setien could find himself back among those cows just as suddenly as he was whipped away from them.

Quique Setien was just as surprised as everyone else by his appointment as Barcelona coach.

“Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being here,” he confessed at his unveiling as Ernesto Valverde’s successor in January.

“Yesterday, I was walking past cows in my village. Today, I was at Barcelona’s training ground coaching the best players in the world.”

Editors’ Picks

Setien had been out of work since parting company with Real Betis last May, after an underwhelming 2018-19 campaign, and was poised to take charge of an Egyptian club when he received a most unexpected approach from the leaders of La Liga.

“When you’re out of work, waiting for an opportunity, you imagine [receiving an offer from] a team that’s down the bottom, in trouble,” he said. “It’s not normal to take over a team that’s first.”

Nothing at Barca is normal anymore, though. Chaos is now the default setting at Camp Nou.

Since Quique’s arrival just five months ago, there has been a social media scandal, allegations of theft and corruption, mass resignations at board level and a bitter dispute over pay-cuts provoked by the financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The coach would be forgiven for wondering if he’d erred in swapping the tranquility of Liencres for the anarchy of Barcelona.

Clearly, though, this is the opportunity of a lifetime for a man who has never lifted a major trophy. The only problem is that there’s no guarantee that he’ll win a title in Catalunya.

Barcelona may currently sit top of La Liga but they are just two points ahead of Real Madrid and Setien told reporters ahead of this weekend’s resumption of play, “I think that we have to win every game if we want to be champions.”

A perfect record looks a tall order, though, given the cloud of uncertainty already hanging over Camp Nou has darkened during the pandemic.

Also, all games between now and the end of the season will be played behind closed doors, while Barca’s results could even arguably be affected by the fact that teams will now be allowed to use five substitutes in a bid to protect players from the increased injury risks involved in returning to competitive football after such a lengthy lay-off and without a proper pre-season.

Indeed, Quique told the Las Palmas Interinsular Football Federation on YouTube, “I think this will do us more harm than good.

“Many games are resolved in the final minutes and with this rule change rivals will be able to have more fresh players in this phase of the match, when we tend to take advantage of their fatigue.”

That remains to be seen, of course. In theory, bigger clubs such as Barca should benefit enormously from being able to rotate stronger, deeper pools of players during a hectic schedule featuring 11 games in five weeks.

However, this is one of the weakest Barcelona sides of the modern era. Their current Liga tally of 58 points is the Blaugrana’s lowest haul from 27 games since 2007-08, when the wheels were falling off the Frank Rijkaard-led side that had won the Champions League just two years previously.

It was the bold and unexpected decision to hire Pep Guardiola which completely altered the history of the club and Barca are now hoping that an even more unexpected appointment might prompt a similarly spectacular U-turn.

Of course, Setien, an avid chess player, shares the same love of Johan Cruyff’s football philosophy as Guardiola.

The former Atletico and Racing Santander midfielder lined out against the Dutchman’s ‘Dream Team’ during his playing days and it changed his whole view of the game.

“I told Cruyff I’d have given my little finger to have played for his team,” Setien has previously admitted.

“And not just to play at Barcelona but for how they played, because I saw how the players enjoyed themselves.”

After Valverde’s more direct, pragmatic play, Setien immediately restored Barca’s traditional brand of possession football.

During his first game in charge, a 1-0 win over Granada, the Blaugrana completed 1,002 passes – the third-highest tally posted in La Liga since Opta began recording numbers.

However, what we have seen in his 11 games to date (seven wins, three defeats and one draw) is a style more similar to the sterile ‘tiki-taka’ that Guardiola despised than the short, sharp and incisive passing that the Catalan deployed to conquer Europe twice in three years.

As Messi damningly stated in an interview with Sport, during the break, “I never doubted the squad we have and I have no doubt that we can win all that remains, but not by playing in the way we were playing.

“Now, everyone has their opinion and they are all very respectable. Mine is based on the fact that I was lucky to play in the Champions League every year and I know that it is not possible to win it by playing as we have been playing.”

The hope, therefore, is that Setien has made good use of the time off and come up with a strategy that suits and satisfies Messi, who hasn’t scored a single goal away from home under the 61-year-old.

During his second game in charge, at Valencia, Setien employed a 3-5-2 but it proved a disaster, with Barca slumping to a dismal 2-0 defeat at Mestalla.

The senior players have, thus, proven resistant to any further experimentation with their tried-and-trusted 4-3-3. The net result is that Setien’s Barca is as offensively static and defensively vulnerable as Valverde’s.

The good news, of course, is that Luis Suarez is now fit to return to action, meaning Setien is in a position to field Barca’s ‘MSG’ attacking triumvirate for the first time since taking charge.

Until now, Suarez, Messi and Antoine Griezmann have started alongside one another on just 13 occasions since the latter’s arrival from Atletico Madrid last summer, and not once since losing a Supercopa de Espana game to the Rojiblancos in Valverde’s final game in charge, on January 9.

Suarez’s continued importance to Barca should not be overlooked. He may no longer be force of nature he once was but it is telling that despite playing just twice in 2020, only Messi has racked up more goals and assists than the Uruguayan this season.

Suarez’s return will not magically solve Barca’s problems going forward – this is also the worst season in terms of goals since 2007-08 – because the main issue remains getting the best out of Griezmann, who functions better as a support striker in a two-man attack.

Setien also has to make do with several midfielders who are clearly past their best (Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal and even the great Sergio Busquets) and shore up a defence that is conceding on average 1.19 goals a game – their worst ratio for nine seasons.

In short, Barca have just as many problems on the field right now as they do off it. And it is within this perfect storm that Setien is charged with finding solutions – and fast.

He has a contract until 2022 but it contains a clause that means he could be relieved of his duties after next year’s presidential election. So, in theory, Setien has 12 months to turn things around.

However, were Barca to finish the current campaign without a trophy, a scapegoat would be required to mask the failings of others higher up the food chain at Camp Nou.

Essentially, Setien could find himself back among those cows just as suddenly as he was whipped away from them.

Quique Setien was just as surprised as everyone else by his appointment as Barcelona coach.

“Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being here,” he confessed at his unveiling as Ernesto Valverde’s successor in January.

“Yesterday, I was walking past cows in my village. Today, I was at Barcelona’s training ground coaching the best players in the world.”

Editors’ Picks

Setien had been out of work since parting company with Real Betis last May, after an underwhelming 2018-19 campaign, and was poised to take charge of an Egyptian club when he received a most unexpected approach from the leaders of La Liga.

“When you’re out of work, waiting for an opportunity, you imagine [receiving an offer from] a team that’s down the bottom, in trouble,” he said. “It’s not normal to take over a team that’s first.”

Nothing at Barca is normal anymore, though. Chaos is now the default setting at Camp Nou.

Since Quique’s arrival just five months ago, there has been a social media scandal, allegations of theft and corruption, mass resignations at board level and a bitter dispute over pay-cuts provoked by the financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The coach would be forgiven for wondering if he’d erred in swapping the tranquility of Liencres for the anarchy of Barcelona.

Clearly, though, this is the opportunity of a lifetime for a man who has never lifted a major trophy. The only problem is that there’s no guarantee that he’ll win a title in Catalunya.

Barcelona may currently sit top of La Liga but they are just two points ahead of Real Madrid and Setien told reporters ahead of this weekend’s resumption of play, “I think that we have to win every game if we want to be champions.”

A perfect record looks a tall order, though, given the cloud of uncertainty already hanging over Camp Nou has darkened during the pandemic.

Also, all games between now and the end of the season will be played behind closed doors, while Barca’s results could even arguably be affected by the fact that teams will now be allowed to use five substitutes in a bid to protect players from the increased injury risks involved in returning to competitive football after such a lengthy lay-off and without a proper pre-season.

Indeed, Quique told the Las Palmas Interinsular Football Federation on YouTube, “I think this will do us more harm than good.

“Many games are resolved in the final minutes and with this rule change rivals will be able to have more fresh players in this phase of the match, when we tend to take advantage of their fatigue.”

That remains to be seen, of course. In theory, bigger clubs such as Barca should benefit enormously from being able to rotate stronger, deeper pools of players during a hectic schedule featuring 11 games in five weeks.

However, this is one of the weakest Barcelona sides of the modern era. Their current Liga tally of 58 points is the Blaugrana’s lowest haul from 27 games since 2007-08, when the wheels were falling off the Frank Rijkaard-led side that had won the Champions League just two years previously.

It was the bold and unexpected decision to hire Pep Guardiola which completely altered the history of the club and Barca are now hoping that an even more unexpected appointment might prompt a similarly spectacular U-turn.

Of course, Setien, an avid chess player, shares the same love of Johan Cruyff’s football philosophy as Guardiola.

The former Atletico and Racing Santander midfielder lined out against the Dutchman’s ‘Dream Team’ during his playing days and it changed his whole view of the game.

“I told Cruyff I’d have given my little finger to have played for his team,” Setien has previously admitted.

“And not just to play at Barcelona but for how they played, because I saw how the players enjoyed themselves.”

After Valverde’s more direct, pragmatic play, Setien immediately restored Barca’s traditional brand of possession football.

During his first game in charge, a 1-0 win over Granada, the Blaugrana completed 1,002 passes – the third-highest tally posted in La Liga since Opta began recording numbers.

However, what we have seen in his 11 games to date (seven wins, three defeats and one draw) is a style more similar to the sterile ‘tiki-taka’ that Guardiola despised than the short, sharp and incisive passing that the Catalan deployed to conquer Europe twice in three years.

As Messi damningly stated in an interview with Sport, during the break, “I never doubted the squad we have and I have no doubt that we can win all that remains, but not by playing in the way we were playing.

“Now, everyone has their opinion and they are all very respectable. Mine is based on the fact that I was lucky to play in the Champions League every year and I know that it is not possible to win it by playing as we have been playing.”

The hope, therefore, is that Setien has made good use of the time off and come up with a strategy that suits and satisfies Messi, who hasn’t scored a single goal away from home under the 61-year-old.

During his second game in charge, at Valencia, Setien employed a 3-5-2 but it proved a disaster, with Barca slumping to a dismal 2-0 defeat at Mestalla.

The senior players have, thus, proven resistant to any further experimentation with their tried-and-trusted 4-3-3. The net result is that Setien’s Barca is as offensively static and defensively vulnerable as Valverde’s.

The good news, of course, is that Luis Suarez is now fit to return to action, meaning Setien is in a position to field Barca’s ‘MSG’ attacking triumvirate for the first time since taking charge.

Until now, Suarez, Messi and Antoine Griezmann have started alongside one another on just 13 occasions since the latter’s arrival from Atletico Madrid last summer, and not once since losing a Supercopa de Espana game to the Rojiblancos in Valverde’s final game in charge, on January 9.

Suarez’s continued importance to Barca should not be overlooked. He may no longer be force of nature he once was but it is telling that despite playing just twice in 2020, only Messi has racked up more goals and assists than the Uruguayan this season.

Suarez’s return will not magically solve Barca’s problems going forward – this is also the worst season in terms of goals since 2007-08 – because the main issue remains getting the best out of Griezmann, who functions better as a support striker in a two-man attack.

Setien also has to make do with several midfielders who are clearly past their best (Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal and even the great Sergio Busquets) and shore up a defence that is conceding on average 1.19 goals a game – their worst ratio for nine seasons.

In short, Barca have just as many problems on the field right now as they do off it. And it is within this perfect storm that Setien is charged with finding solutions – and fast.

He has a contract until 2022 but it contains a clause that means he could be relieved of his duties after next year’s presidential election. So, in theory, Setien has 12 months to turn things around.

However, were Barca to finish the current campaign without a trophy, a scapegoat would be required to mask the failings of others higher up the food chain at Camp Nou.

Essentially, Setien could find himself back among those cows just as suddenly as he was whipped away from them.

Quique Setien was just as surprised as everyone else by his appointment as Barcelona coach.

“Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being here,” he confessed at his unveiling as Ernesto Valverde’s successor in January.

“Yesterday, I was walking past cows in my village. Today, I was at Barcelona’s training ground coaching the best players in the world.”

Editors’ Picks

Setien had been out of work since parting company with Real Betis last May, after an underwhelming 2018-19 campaign, and was poised to take charge of an Egyptian club when he received a most unexpected approach from the leaders of La Liga.

“When you’re out of work, waiting for an opportunity, you imagine [receiving an offer from] a team that’s down the bottom, in trouble,” he said. “It’s not normal to take over a team that’s first.”

Nothing at Barca is normal anymore, though. Chaos is now the default setting at Camp Nou.

Since Quique’s arrival just five months ago, there has been a social media scandal, allegations of theft and corruption, mass resignations at board level and a bitter dispute over pay-cuts provoked by the financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The coach would be forgiven for wondering if he’d erred in swapping the tranquility of Liencres for the anarchy of Barcelona.

Clearly, though, this is the opportunity of a lifetime for a man who has never lifted a major trophy. The only problem is that there’s no guarantee that he’ll win a title in Catalunya.

Barcelona may currently sit top of La Liga but they are just two points ahead of Real Madrid and Setien told reporters ahead of this weekend’s resumption of play, “I think that we have to win every game if we want to be champions.”

A perfect record looks a tall order, though, given the cloud of uncertainty already hanging over Camp Nou has darkened during the pandemic.

Also, all games between now and the end of the season will be played behind closed doors, while Barca’s results could even arguably be affected by the fact that teams will now be allowed to use five substitutes in a bid to protect players from the increased injury risks involved in returning to competitive football after such a lengthy lay-off and without a proper pre-season.

Indeed, Quique told the Las Palmas Interinsular Football Federation on YouTube, “I think this will do us more harm than good.

“Many games are resolved in the final minutes and with this rule change rivals will be able to have more fresh players in this phase of the match, when we tend to take advantage of their fatigue.”

That remains to be seen, of course. In theory, bigger clubs such as Barca should benefit enormously from being able to rotate stronger, deeper pools of players during a hectic schedule featuring 11 games in five weeks.

However, this is one of the weakest Barcelona sides of the modern era. Their current Liga tally of 58 points is the Blaugrana’s lowest haul from 27 games since 2007-08, when the wheels were falling off the Frank Rijkaard-led side that had won the Champions League just two years previously.

It was the bold and unexpected decision to hire Pep Guardiola which completely altered the history of the club and Barca are now hoping that an even more unexpected appointment might prompt a similarly spectacular U-turn.

Of course, Setien, an avid chess player, shares the same love of Johan Cruyff’s football philosophy as Guardiola.

The former Atletico and Racing Santander midfielder lined out against the Dutchman’s ‘Dream Team’ during his playing days and it changed his whole view of the game.

“I told Cruyff I’d have given my little finger to have played for his team,” Setien has previously admitted.

“And not just to play at Barcelona but for how they played, because I saw how the players enjoyed themselves.”

After Valverde’s more direct, pragmatic play, Setien immediately restored Barca’s traditional brand of possession football.

During his first game in charge, a 1-0 win over Granada, the Blaugrana completed 1,002 passes – the third-highest tally posted in La Liga since Opta began recording numbers.

However, what we have seen in his 11 games to date (seven wins, three defeats and one draw) is a style more similar to the sterile ‘tiki-taka’ that Guardiola despised than the short, sharp and incisive passing that the Catalan deployed to conquer Europe twice in three years.

As Messi damningly stated in an interview with Sport, during the break, “I never doubted the squad we have and I have no doubt that we can win all that remains, but not by playing in the way we were playing.

“Now, everyone has their opinion and they are all very respectable. Mine is based on the fact that I was lucky to play in the Champions League every year and I know that it is not possible to win it by playing as we have been playing.”

The hope, therefore, is that Setien has made good use of the time off and come up with a strategy that suits and satisfies Messi, who hasn’t scored a single goal away from home under the 61-year-old.

During his second game in charge, at Valencia, Setien employed a 3-5-2 but it proved a disaster, with Barca slumping to a dismal 2-0 defeat at Mestalla.

The senior players have, thus, proven resistant to any further experimentation with their tried-and-trusted 4-3-3. The net result is that Setien’s Barca is as offensively static and defensively vulnerable as Valverde’s.

The good news, of course, is that Luis Suarez is now fit to return to action, meaning Setien is in a position to field Barca’s ‘MSG’ attacking triumvirate for the first time since taking charge.

Until now, Suarez, Messi and Antoine Griezmann have started alongside one another on just 13 occasions since the latter’s arrival from Atletico Madrid last summer, and not once since losing a Supercopa de Espana game to the Rojiblancos in Valverde’s final game in charge, on January 9.

Suarez’s continued importance to Barca should not be overlooked. He may no longer be force of nature he once was but it is telling that despite playing just twice in 2020, only Messi has racked up more goals and assists than the Uruguayan this season.

Suarez’s return will not magically solve Barca’s problems going forward – this is also the worst season in terms of goals since 2007-08 – because the main issue remains getting the best out of Griezmann, who functions better as a support striker in a two-man attack.

Setien also has to make do with several midfielders who are clearly past their best (Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal and even the great Sergio Busquets) and shore up a defence that is conceding on average 1.19 goals a game – their worst ratio for nine seasons.

In short, Barca have just as many problems on the field right now as they do off it. And it is within this perfect storm that Setien is charged with finding solutions – and fast.

He has a contract until 2022 but it contains a clause that means he could be relieved of his duties after next year’s presidential election. So, in theory, Setien has 12 months to turn things around.

However, were Barca to finish the current campaign without a trophy, a scapegoat would be required to mask the failings of others higher up the food chain at Camp Nou.

Essentially, Setien could find himself back among those cows just as suddenly as he was whipped away from them.

Quique Setien was just as surprised as everyone else by his appointment as Barcelona coach.

“Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being here,” he confessed at his unveiling as Ernesto Valverde’s successor in January.

“Yesterday, I was walking past cows in my village. Today, I was at Barcelona’s training ground coaching the best players in the world.”

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Setien had been out of work since parting company with Real Betis last May, after an underwhelming 2018-19 campaign, and was poised to take charge of an Egyptian club when he received a most unexpected approach from the leaders of La Liga.

“When you’re out of work, waiting for an opportunity, you imagine [receiving an offer from] a team that’s down the bottom, in trouble,” he said. “It’s not normal to take over a team that’s first.”

Nothing at Barca is normal anymore, though. Chaos is now the default setting at Camp Nou.

Since Quique’s arrival just five months ago, there has been a social media scandal, allegations of theft and corruption, mass resignations at board level and a bitter dispute over pay-cuts provoked by the financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The coach would be forgiven for wondering if he’d erred in swapping the tranquility of Liencres for the anarchy of Barcelona.

Clearly, though, this is the opportunity of a lifetime for a man who has never lifted a major trophy. The only problem is that there’s no guarantee that he’ll win a title in Catalunya.

Barcelona may currently sit top of La Liga but they are just two points ahead of Real Madrid and Setien told reporters ahead of this weekend’s resumption of play, “I think that we have to win every game if we want to be champions.”

A perfect record looks a tall order, though, given the cloud of uncertainty already hanging over Camp Nou has darkened during the pandemic.

Also, all games between now and the end of the season will be played behind closed doors, while Barca’s results could even arguably be affected by the fact that teams will now be allowed to use five substitutes in a bid to protect players from the increased injury risks involved in returning to competitive football after such a lengthy lay-off and without a proper pre-season.

Indeed, Quique told the Las Palmas Interinsular Football Federation on YouTube, “I think this will do us more harm than good.

“Many games are resolved in the final minutes and with this rule change rivals will be able to have more fresh players in this phase of the match, when we tend to take advantage of their fatigue.”

That remains to be seen, of course. In theory, bigger clubs such as Barca should benefit enormously from being able to rotate stronger, deeper pools of players during a hectic schedule featuring 11 games in five weeks.

However, this is one of the weakest Barcelona sides of the modern era. Their current Liga tally of 58 points is the Blaugrana’s lowest haul from 27 games since 2007-08, when the wheels were falling off the Frank Rijkaard-led side that had won the Champions League just two years previously.

It was the bold and unexpected decision to hire Pep Guardiola which completely altered the history of the club and Barca are now hoping that an even more unexpected appointment might prompt a similarly spectacular U-turn.

Of course, Setien, an avid chess player, shares the same love of Johan Cruyff’s football philosophy as Guardiola.

The former Atletico and Racing Santander midfielder lined out against the Dutchman’s ‘Dream Team’ during his playing days and it changed his whole view of the game.

“I told Cruyff I’d have given my little finger to have played for his team,” Setien has previously admitted.

“And not just to play at Barcelona but for how they played, because I saw how the players enjoyed themselves.”

After Valverde’s more direct, pragmatic play, Setien immediately restored Barca’s traditional brand of possession football.

During his first game in charge, a 1-0 win over Granada, the Blaugrana completed 1,002 passes – the third-highest tally posted in La Liga since Opta began recording numbers.

However, what we have seen in his 11 games to date (seven wins, three defeats and one draw) is a style more similar to the sterile ‘tiki-taka’ that Guardiola despised than the short, sharp and incisive passing that the Catalan deployed to conquer Europe twice in three years.

As Messi damningly stated in an interview with Sport, during the break, “I never doubted the squad we have and I have no doubt that we can win all that remains, but not by playing in the way we were playing.

“Now, everyone has their opinion and they are all very respectable. Mine is based on the fact that I was lucky to play in the Champions League every year and I know that it is not possible to win it by playing as we have been playing.”

The hope, therefore, is that Setien has made good use of the time off and come up with a strategy that suits and satisfies Messi, who hasn’t scored a single goal away from home under the 61-year-old.

During his second game in charge, at Valencia, Setien employed a 3-5-2 but it proved a disaster, with Barca slumping to a dismal 2-0 defeat at Mestalla.

The senior players have, thus, proven resistant to any further experimentation with their tried-and-trusted 4-3-3. The net result is that Setien’s Barca is as offensively static and defensively vulnerable as Valverde’s.

The good news, of course, is that Luis Suarez is now fit to return to action, meaning Setien is in a position to field Barca’s ‘MSG’ attacking triumvirate for the first time since taking charge.

Until now, Suarez, Messi and Antoine Griezmann have started alongside one another on just 13 occasions since the latter’s arrival from Atletico Madrid last summer, and not once since losing a Supercopa de Espana game to the Rojiblancos in Valverde’s final game in charge, on January 9.

Suarez’s continued importance to Barca should not be overlooked. He may no longer be force of nature he once was but it is telling that despite playing just twice in 2020, only Messi has racked up more goals and assists than the Uruguayan this season.

Suarez’s return will not magically solve Barca’s problems going forward – this is also the worst season in terms of goals since 2007-08 – because the main issue remains getting the best out of Griezmann, who functions better as a support striker in a two-man attack.

Setien also has to make do with several midfielders who are clearly past their best (Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal and even the great Sergio Busquets) and shore up a defence that is conceding on average 1.19 goals a game – their worst ratio for nine seasons.

In short, Barca have just as many problems on the field right now as they do off it. And it is within this perfect storm that Setien is charged with finding solutions – and fast.

He has a contract until 2022 but it contains a clause that means he could be relieved of his duties after next year’s presidential election. So, in theory, Setien has 12 months to turn things around.

However, were Barca to finish the current campaign without a trophy, a scapegoat would be required to mask the failings of others higher up the food chain at Camp Nou.

Essentially, Setien could find himself back among those cows just as suddenly as he was whipped away from them.

Throughout Eastside Catholic School’s state championship playoff run last season, three prominent football players were under police investigation for a late-August parking-lot brawl in Sammamish that sent one teenager to a hospital and injured two others.

Police and prosecutorial records obtained by The Seattle Times indicate several videos were made of the fight outside a local supermarket, which generated five 911 calls and was witnessed by dozens of people. King County Sheriff’s Office deputies investigated from mid-October through January and recommended two players be charged with second-degree felony assault and another with misdemeanor assault, stating the athletes had “premeditated” the exchange and “ganged up on” the smaller, outnumbered alleged victims.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office declined in February to charge anyone, and Issaquah prosecutors on March 13 dropped a charge of misdemeanor assault filed against one player, now 19, who was adult at the time. Both agencies cited conflicting information and uncertainty over whether the altercation constituted “mutual combat.”

King County prosecutor Michelle Larson, in declining felony charges, noted that, because one accused player turned 18 during a seven-week delay before police opened their investigation, he’d potentially been unfairly denied his right to be processed through the juvenile system.

The cases originated less than a year after King County prosecutors declined charges against four different Eastside Catholic players who were investigated for sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in April 2018.

The three Eastside Catholic players involved in the fight kept playing throughout the latest investigation, which began with two games remaining in the 2019 regular season and continued through the team’s 3A championship win over O’Dea High School.

In a statement, Eastside Catholic administrators said they were not aware of details of the brawl until now, and that the behavior “is not acceptable or aligned with our values.” The incident occurred just before the school year.

“We are deeply dismayed and concerned, both by the behavior itself and that this information is only now coming to light,” the statement reads.

“It is clear that our communications processes have failed and that we need to take a hard look at why we were not aware of this sooner.”

The Seattle Times generally does not publish the names of suspects that aren’t charged. The 19-year-old’s name appears in some files but is not published because the criminal charge against him was dropped. The names of the other juvenile suspects were redacted from records.

On the night of Aug 24, a group of up to 75 teens from various schools had gathered at the Sammamish grocery store lot when the brawl broke out between some older teens and a group that one eyewitness described as “half the Eastside Catholic football team,” according to a police report.

Police found two alleged victims beaten and bruised. One of them went to a hospital with what records describe as a minor concussion and bruised ribs. Although the alleged victims, who did not attend Eastside Catholic, provided two suspect names, police didn’t pursue an investigation because the teens wouldn’t cooperate further.

But nearly two months later, on Oct. 13, one of those teens and a third alleged victim approached police with videos and additional names. They told police they feared retaliation by players.

The videos, according to police reports, showed one player grabbing an alleged victim in a chokehold from behind, while another blindsided a teen with a punch and knocked him unconscious. They recommended felony charges against both.

A third player was said by police to be seen “curb-stomping” a teen defenseless on the ground. He was initially charged with misdemeanor assault.

But King County prosecutors said it was still difficult to ascertain that the players weren’t acting in self-defense and therefore didn’t merit felony charges.

After King County declined more serious felony charges against the 18-year-old, the case was referred to Issaquah prosecutor Alexa McBarron for a possible misdemeanor filing, she said in an interview Tuesday.

Soon after, a Seattle lawyer who was a “godmother” to the player gave McBarron eight sworn statements from eyewitnesses not interviewed by police, as well as an audio recording. Together, they portrayed a different scenario, in which the 18 year-old was trying to pull the alleged victim away from fighting a much bigger player.

Based on that evidence, McBarron re-examined the case. After finding problems with victims’ statements and seeing Snapchat messages suggesting they appeared to be threatening players before and after the altercation, she declined to file charges against the 18-year-old. She also dropped those against the 19-year-old.

BDN file photo | BDN

Ben Byorak

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff •
June 28, 2018 6:51 pm

Updated: June 28, 2018 8:37 pm

The center fielder for Brewer High School’s championship baseball team was caught with cocaine in the school parking lot less than 36 hours after the team clinched the title.

Benjamin Byorak, 18, of Brewer was arrested June 17 and charged with aggravated furnishing of a scheduled drug, a felony, according to documents filed at the Penobscot Judicial Center.

Brewer beat Wells High School 3-2 on the afternoon of June 16 at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor to win its first state crown.

Byorak allegedly purchased the cocaine for $100 from a college student and shared the drug with Logan Rogerson, 20, of Brewer, a 2016 graduate of Brewer High School and a former athlete, shortly before police arrived.

Byorak’s attorney, Kaylee Folster of Bangor, declined Thursday to comment on the case.

Information about who is representing Rogerson was not available Thursday.

The charge is aggravated because Byorak allegedly was found with the drug so near the school.

Rogerson was charged with unlawful possession of a scheduled drug, a misdemeanor.

A Brewer police officer spotted a Subaru in a dark corner of the high school parking lot at about 9:30 p.m. on June 17, according to a court document. The officer approached the car and saw a full bottle of vodka on the rear floorboard and smelled marijuana coming from inside the car.

Byorak was in the driver’s seat and Rogerson was in the passenger seat, the document said.

In a search of the car, police allegedly found a jar of marijuana in a backpack that Byorak said belonged to him. Under the passenger seat, the officer found a dark plaque on the floorboard with white powder measured out in the shape of two lines, the court document said. There also was a rolled up $1 bill on the console in the car.

Byorak allegedly told police that he had sold marijuana to his friends “less than 20 times.”

After being interviewed at the Brewer police station, Rogerson was issued a summons and released.

Byorak was arrested and taken to the Penobscot County Jail. He later was released on $500 cash bail.

Both men are due in court on Aug. 14.

It convicted of aggravated furnishing, Byorak faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000.

Rogerson faces up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000, if convicted of the Class D possession charge.

Byorak also played ice hockey for Brewer High and was named to the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B All-Academic Team last season.

Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news.

 

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Four Upson County students were arrested Saturday after being caught smoking marijuana, according to a Thomaston police incident report.

The report says one patrolman notified another officer of four suspicious vehicles and six people around them at Greatest Generation Park around 7:45 p.m.

A police canine trained to detect narcotics did a ‘free air sniff’ and a police sergeant found a plastic bag with a ‘green leafy substance’ behind one of the trucks, the report says.

The report says officers found plastic baggies with marijuana residue in tone vehicle.

After the searches, Rodney Raines, Ja’Corey Smith, Hamilton Harrison and Otis Walker were all arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and criminal trespassing, the report says.

Raines, Smith, and Walker are all listed on the Upson-Lee basketball team’s roster. Harrison is a student at the high school, but is not on the team.

According to the school’s Code of Conduct, student athletes are immediately suspended from all extracurricular participation and from attending any extracurricular activities until the investigation concludes.

The team is scheduled to play in the AAAA GHSA basketball championship against St. Pius X on Saturday, March 10, at Georgia Tech.

© 2018 WMAZ

When you analyzed each element of Georgia and Alabama before Monday’s national championship game, the Bulldogs and the Crimson Tide appeared even in just about every category.

And that includes number of players arrested in 2017.

Georgia and Alabama, with five arrests each, were co-champions of the seventh annual Golden Handcuffs, an unofficial honor given since 2011 to the SEC football program with the most player arrests in a calendar year.

The Higgins Institute for Athletically Arrested Development, administrator of the Golden Handcuffs, bases the award on arrests tracked by arrestnation.com.

Each year is divided into three periods – January through April 30 which is winter training and spring practice, May 1 through July 31 known as “Arrest Season” when NCAA rules limit coaches’ contact with their players, and then August 1 through December 31 which is the preseason, regular season and most of the postseason.

Even with 20 arrests since Aug. 1 at the start of preseason training camp through Dec. 31, the 2017 total of 32 arrests of SEC football players is the lowest in the seven-year history of the awards.

While this is a positive for the image of the SEC, it also forced layoffs at bail bonds companies across the league’s 11-state footprint.

Marijuana possession was the most popular charge among SEC players with 11 arrests or citations, followed by DUI and public intoxication with five.

Georgia and Alabama edged Tennessee, which had four arrests closing fast late in the season before head coach Butch Jones was fired.

Combined with Georgia tying Mississippi State a year ago for the 2016 Golden Handcuffs title, Georgia’s Kirby Smart became the first coach to lead his to two consecutive Golden Handcuffs titles.

There were a couple of what ifs in this year’s Golden Handcuffs race.

Georgia would have won the title outright if starting inside linebacker Natrez Patrick, who already served a four-game suspension this season for an October marijuana possession arrest, had charges dropped on a December marijuana possession arrest.

If he would have been charged, it would have been a third violation of Georgia’s drug policy which subjects him to dismissal from the team. He was sent to drug rehab and hasn’t played in the postseason.

Two-time Golden Handcuffs champs Florida would have run away from this year’s title if the seven players that committed felony credit card use been officially charged with the crime. Instead, they were placed in a pretrial intervention program.

This year for the first time, the Higgins Institute for Athletically Arrested Development is honoring individuals with special awards noting their unusual arrests.

Here are the honorees:

The “He. . .Could. . .Go. . .All. . .The. . .Way” award goes to Mississippi State freshman running back Kylin Hill. He was arrested for reckless driving near Starkville for allegedly driving a 2015 blue Dodge Challenger 120 miles per hour. Just the week before, MSU running backs coach Greg Knox noted Hill’s speed.

The “You Mean We Can’t Smoke Weed in the Dorm?” award goes to Florida freshmen James Robinson and Ventrell Miller, who apparently thought it was perfectly legal to fire it up in their on-campus dorm room. After a residential assistant was outside of the Keys Residential Complex smelled “burnt cannabis emanating in the air” at 12:30 in the morning, he called campus police. When police entered the room, the officers found a cloud of smoke and a styrofoam cup that appeared to have been used as an ashtray.

“I Should Have Been the Defensive MVP winner and Now Everyone Will Pay” award goes to Texas A&M senior defensive lineman Zaycoven Henderson. Just a few hours after he was honored at A&M’s football banquet, he was charged with multiple felonies after allegedly pointing a gun at people and threatening to kill them at the Campus Village Apartments.

“This Looks Like a Good Place to Pass Out” award to Kentucky football punter Matt Panton, who drowned his sorrows a few hours after the Wildcats loss to Ole Miss. Police found the thoroughly intoxicated Panton passed out at almost 1 a.m. lying on the sidewalk near the intersection of South Upper and Bolivar streets near UK’s campus.

“That’s the Last Time I’ll Illegally Park” award to Georgia outside linebacker Natrez Patrick. He unlawfully parked his car with the flashers on at a convenience store in Downtown Athens. When Patrick came out of the store, police were waiting told him to retrieve his identification from his wallet inside the vehicle. Upon opening the car door, the smell of marijuana was so obvious that the officer asked Patrick there was marijuana in the vehicle.

Patrick said there wasn’t, which didn’t fly when the officer looked inside the car and numerous small pieces of marijuana. The officer began to search the vehicle. Patrick was charged with possession when he finally told the officer there was marijuana in the center console.

This year’s final Golden Handcuffs standings through Dec. 31:

Alabama and Georgia 5 each, Tennessee 4, Florida and Mississippi State 3 each, LSU, Missouri, Ole Miss and Texas A&M 2 each, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Auburn and Kentucky 1 each, South Carolina 0. Total: 32 (Western Division 16, Eastern Division 16)

The all-time Golden Handcuffs standings through 2017: Georgia 35, Florida 34, Alabama 31, Ole Miss and Texas A&M 27 each, Tennessee 26, Mississippi State 25, Missouri 24, LSU 23, Kentucky and Auburn 19 each, Arkansas 18, SC 11, Vanderbilt 5. Total: 324 (170 Western Division, 154 Eastern Division).