Epley Remains Head Coach of Southampton Baseball After Winning Appeal of Full Season Suspension

Zach Epley will be staying on as head coach of the Southampton varsity baseball team this season after having initially been suspended by Section XI for the rest of the season on Friday.

Epley had met with the section’s Ethics Committee early last week after the county had got wind that, while down in Florida the first official week of the spring season the week prior, Southampton had shared the field with another team prior to fulfilling its mandated 10 practices, as per Section XI rules. An additional issue was brought up when one of those teams Southampton shared a field with, St. Luke’s, was found not to be affiliated with the National Federation of State High School Associations, which is also against county rules.

Epley admitted to not knowing either rule, the fact that his team needed 10 practices before sharing a field with another team, or that it can’t share a field with a nonaffiliated program, and for that he was willing to take some form of punishment, he said. But for it to be the rest of the season seemed to be a bit overboard, so he appealed the decision right away on Friday after learning of the committee’s decision. And although a decision had not been officially announced as of Monday night, he was assured that his suspension would be reduced to what will essentially be four games.

Epley was unable to be at his team’s home game on Friday, in which it lost, 5-1, to Bayport-Blue Point. Assistant coaches Chris Cornacchio and Johnny Navan led the team in that game, and were scheduled to also lead the team in any games played, barring weather, up until this Thursday, April 10, when Epley is scheduled to be back.

Epley was told by Section XI that had he booked his team’s trip a week prior or week after he did, it wouldn’t have been an issue. A week prior would have been before the official start of the spring season, and it could have been deemed a nonschool sanctioned event. A week after, and the team would have likely fulfilled its mandated 10 practices.

The issue about playing with a nonsanctioned team, Epley said, was actually on the company that books such trips, KSA Events, an organization that helps with the logistics of finding and placing teams together so they can train together. Epley said he contacted the company, which said it was not aware of the rule.

Nonetheless, it was a learning experience for all involved, Epley said.

“Part of why this all happened, too, is because the season started a week later than it normally does and I had booked this trip way in advance. I don’t even know if the official schedule was even out yet when I booked it,” he said. “It was all a big misunderstanding on our part, and I was not arguing the fact that we were wrong or the rule, but did they think a year suspension was really warranted? I didn’t think so.”

Southampton Athletic Director Darren Phillips agreed and said Epley had the entire back of school administrators the entire process.

“There was a reasonably amount done wrong on my part and on Zach’s part,” he said. “I was certainly aware that the boys were going on this trip down to Florida, but I did not pay close enough attention to the dates they were going down. So we acknowledged that we did do something wrong, but we wanted to make sure the kids weren't going to be penalized.

“Then we were looking at different situations of where other people were suspended for similar infractions and we figured two to three games seemed to be acceptable, but when the Ethic’s Committee came back to and said they were going to recommend the rest of the season, it was, like, are you kidding me? We felt that was excessive and so we filed the appeal.”

Epley felt as if, for one reason or another, Section XI was trying to make an example out of him, as a message to other coaches and teams to be more diligent in their planning. Ultimately that’s exactly what will come out of the entire situation, both Epley and Phillips said, and whether it took a full season suspension or just a handful of games, they’ve learned from it.

“I felt like that was a good outcome for us,” Phillips said of the eventual outcome. “All we wanted was a fair hearing and a fair resolution. I’m happy for our kids and our parents because they were really upset about it all. Zach does so much for the kids, with everything he’s done out-of-pocket, he just genuinely cares about the kids, so I’m glad it turned out this way, glad we didn’t have to go an actual appeal hearing because we probably would have been in court until the end of the season. I’d just like to think cooler heads prevailed, they looked over the entire situation and were willing to shorten it with a fair resolution.”

Despite the headaches the trip to Florida may have caused, Epley said he plans on bringing the team back next year — but he will be more forthcoming and pass by all dates and info with Section XI going forward. He’s just happy to put it behind him, and it did overshadow the team’s first full week of the season, which included a 4-2 victory at Elwood-John Glenn on April 2 in which Daniel McDonnell struck out 19 of the 20 batters he faced in 6 ⅔ innings before being forced to leave the game due to pitch limits.

“It was an honest mistake,” he said. “I truly didn’t think we were doing anything wrong. Now I understand we can’t be on a field with another team before 10 practices. The last thing I want to do is have something like a practice or scrimmage jeopardize our season in such a way.”