OCC appeals again

Orange Coast College will pursue its right to appeal a postseason ban on all 22 sports for the 2016-17 school year before an arbitration panel assembled by the state governing body for community college athletics.

OCC spokesperson Doug Bennett said Thursday that OCC has requested a testimonial hearing before a three-member arbitration panel, though the California Community College Athletic Assn. may choose to limit the process to the panel’s consideration of written documents.

OCC President Dennis Harkins is currently negotiating with the CCCAA to establish which three of the 12 members of the arbitration committee will be assigned to hear OCC’s appeal.

A letter from Coast Community College District lawyer Jack P. Lipton to CCCAA President Carlyle Carter requesting the arbitration hearing restated OCC’s case that the postseason ban is unfair and denies OCC due process.

Lipton also said in the letter that OCC may seek judicial relief, if the panel does not limit the postseason ban to football for 2016-17.

The letter also protested a lack of cause given for the denial of OCC’s original appeal, and seeks to hear reasons for the April 1 denial before the issue is settled in arbitration.

Bennett said the three-person panel should be selected early next week and the panel would then have 18 days in which to conduct the hearing.

“Realistically, we’re looking at having an arbitration meeting by mid-May and a decision soon after,” said Bennett, the school’s executive director of college advancement.

Bennett said OCC would ideally like to have Lipton, Harkins, Michael Sutliff (dean of kinesiology and athletics), as well as two student-athletes present OCC’s case before the arbitration panel.