AHSAA used ‘arbitrary’ and improper rule change to punish Mary G. Montgomery, players, lawsuit claims

 

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Attorney for the mother of an MGM player claims AHSAA leadership altered a recruiting rule without the approval of the legislative council nearly 10 years ago to serve a personal agenda

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By JIMMY WIGFIELD

The mother of a Mary G. Montgomery High School football player who was declared ineligible for attending a freshman welcoming ceremony in 2025 claims in a lawsuit that the Alabama High School Athletic Association and Executive Director Heath Harmon used an improperly modified rule to punish the school for what Harmon called “egregious” recruiting violations.

Tameka Dale is seeking a permanent injunction against the AHSAA and Harmon so her son, sophomore Tristan Dale, can play.

The lawsuit was filed on Sept. 4 in Montgomery County Circuit Court on behalf of Dale and her son by attorney Michael Kidd.

Tameka Dale asked the court to restrain the AHSAA from enforcing a rule that she said was improperly and arbitrarily interpreted by Harmon and requested that MGM not be forced to forfeit any games her son plays in.

AHSAA attorney Benjamin Espy quickly replied by filing a motion to dismiss the case, saying the circuit court has no jurisdiction over the association.

Kidd is framing Harmon’s actions as arbitrary because he said the Alabama Supreme Court has held that the circuit court has jurisdiction over the AHSAA “if acts of the association are the result of fraud, lack of jurisdiction, collusion or arbitrariness.”

The lawsuit claims portions of the recruiting rule were altered without proper authorization during the tenure of former AHSAA Executive Steve Savarese.

The lawsuit said the executive director amended and modified the rule “through his interpretations … to serve the executive director’s personal agenda and were made in response to pending litigation,” according to Kidd.

 

Dale: We did it right

 

An AHSAA investigation centered on an April freshman welcoming ceremony at Mary G. Montgomery resulted in MGM being put on restrictive probation and being banned from the playoffs for a year and the one-year suspension of coach Zach Golson, who was removed from his job by the Mobile County Public School System two weeks before the sanctions were announced. Golson has filed a separate lawsuit against Harmon, the AHSAA, investigator Chuck Anderson, MGM Principal David Diaz and MCPSS Superintendent Chresal Threadgill alleging defamation and lack of due process.

The welcoming ceremony was attended by students who had already done paperwork to transfer to MGM or who had expressed interest in enrolling there through their parents, Golson previously said. He also said contact with any of the students was inadvertent and Diaz said the students were not invited by MGM. Golson said in his lawsuit the ceremony was approved by MGM’s administration and publicized on social media.

A May 18 letter from Harmon to Diaz — which is part of Dale’s affidavit — named the players declared ineligible by Harmon and included details of the AHSAA’s ruling against Golson and the school.

The letter said the school self-reported violations of the recruiting rule and confirmed Baker High School supplied information to the AHSAA, although the players involved were zoned for many other schools, including Blount, Davidson and Murphy, according to the letter. Golson said in his lawsuit that Blount was also involved in reporting MGM.

In the letter, Harmon wrote that he was disappointed in “egregious violations” and that MGM had not proposed corrective actions. Diaz subsequently presented a plan to the AHSAA’s Central Board in July.

Kidd alleged in the lawsuit that Harmon and the AHSAA used a rule in the association’s handbook that had not been approved by its legislative council as required by the association’s constitution and was enforced “through collusion and fraud” by the AHSAA.

Dale said in the lawsuit that her son attended MGM’s 2025 spring welcoming ceremony as an eighth grader from Clark-Shaw Magnet School and was zoned to attend Vigor. However, Dale said Vigor was considered a failing school by the state and chose to send her son to MGM. Dale said her son was an honor student who already had friends at Mary G. Montgomery and he sat out the 2025 season per AHSAA rules because she had not made a bona fide move into MGM’s school zone.

On May 8, 2025, Dale said she brought her son to the ceremony on campus and she spoke with coaches, administrators and counselors. Her son had completed the necessary paperwork to enroll at Mary G. Montgomery and added no MGM representatives or “go betweens” attempted to recruit Tristan Dale, including Golson, who never visited Clark-Shaw Magnet School to recruit her son, Dale said.

Tristan Dale was one of 21 students declared permanently ineligible to play at MGM in May, according to Harmon’s letter.

 

Claims of personal agenda

Kidd said the arbitrary interpretation of the recruiting rule originated with a 2018 investigation into Marbury High School’s baseball program and involved then-AHSAA Executive Director Savarese.

Kidd cited what he said were least two instances where a recruiting rule was changed without proper authorization.

An original rule in the 2015-16 AHSAA handbook said: “No person connected in any way with a school may contact a student or prospective student, or his/her parents or guardian who resides outside of the school district to inquire or encourage them to transfer or enroll in their school for the chief purpose of participating in interscholastic athletics,” according to Kidd.

Kidd said in the lawsuit that the AHSAA changed a bylaw pertaining to recruiting in its 2018-19 handbook that prohibited “any contact/communication with a student, a student’s parents or any other family member enrolled in another school, regardless of the school zone, including but not limited to phone calls, emails, texts, social media, etc.”

The phrase “phone calls, emails, texts, social media, etc.” was added to the rule, although the AHSAA’s Legislative Council never voted to approve it and Harmon had testified in a separate case that only the legislative council could make or approve changes, Kidd said.

The executive director amended and modified the rule “through his interpretations … to serve the executive director’s personal agenda and were made in response to pending litigation,” according to Kidd. Savarese was the executive director in 2018-19.

Kidd said in the filing that a 2018 investigation by AHSAA investigator Ben Bugg into alleged recruiting violations in Marbury High School’s baseball program exonerated the coach. However, Savarese sent a letter to the school’s principal saying the baseball coach had violated Rule VI, Section 12 of the association’s bylaws concerning recruiting, Kidd said.

After the AHSAA announced its ruling, a whistleblower leaked an internal memo from Bugg to Savarese clearing all parties of wrongdoing. The change in the bylaw without legislative approval followed, Kidd said.

In the 2022-23 academic year, Kidd said in the filing that the recruiting rule was again altered to say, “It is permissible for a coach, or anyone connected with the school, to talk or speak with a student(s) or parent(s) who, on their own, visit their school for any specific purpose other than athletics.” Kidd said the phrase “other than athletics” was added arbitrarily and the rule has no jurisdiction over Golson because it was never approved by the legislative council, Kidd said.

Dale’s affidavit showed a rule from the 2021-22 AHSAA handbook that said it is permissible for a coach or anyone connected to a school to talk or speak with a student and his parents who on their own visit the school for any specific purpose.

In the current AHSAA handbook, the relevant rules read: “No person connected in any way with a school may contact a student or prospective student, or his/her parents or guardian who resides outside of the school district to inquire or encourage them to transfer or enroll in their school for the chief purpose of participating in interscholastic athletics. … It is permissible for a coach, or anyone else connected with a school, to talk or speak with a student(s) or parent(s) who, on their own, visit their school for any specific purpose other than athletics.”

Harmon took “universal, unauthorized actions” to declare Tristan Dale ineligible, said Kidd, who added if the modified and unauthorized language of the recruiting rule was removed, the rule would not have been violated because Tameka Dale accompanied her son to the welcoming ceremony.

 

 

Players named

 

According to Harmon’s letter, Diaz said none of the players at the most recent welcoming ceremony were formally contacted or invited by MGM. The following athletes were involved, according to the letter:

• Keylan Coleman of Causey Middle School (zoned for Baker).

• Shayne Howard of Scarborough Middle School (zoned for Blount).

• Mason Palmer of Causey (zoned for Baker).

• Shedrick Taylor of Phillips Prep (zoned for Murphy).

• Michael Williams of Phillips Prep (zoned for Blount).

• Tyler Curry of Clark-Shaw (zoned for Blount).

• Cam Gains of Phillips Prep (zoned for Davidson).

• Marlon Gains of Phillips Prep (zoned for Blount).

• Jordan Lankster of Semmes Middle School (zoned for Blount).

• Odin Oliveira of Semmes Middle (zoned for Blount).

• Marrlyn McCorvey of Causey Middle.

According to the letter, Howard’s parents met with MGM’s registrar and applied for a transfer but he did not enroll. The transfers of Williams, Curry and Marlon Gains were approved by the Mobile County Public School System. McCorvey attended the ceremony, according to Causey Middle School, but MGM has no documentation that he did

The letter also listed the names of players Diaz said were not zoned for MGM but had spoken with Golson during a visit to Semmes Middle School and/or had attended one of the school’s welcoming ceremonies in the past. Golson said he visited Semmes Middle School to speak only with those students who said they planned to attend MGM. These were also declared ineligible by the AHSAA:

• Jakaleb Fields.

• Jabori Fields.

• Braylen Gamble.

• John Greene.

• Jaydon White.

• Carson Pharr.

• Marquis Gould.

• Tristan Dale.

• Ja’Siah Samuels.

• Jondae Lee.

In his letter to Diaz, Harmon cited numerous violations of the AHSAA recruiting rules, including improper contact outside the school’s attendance zone and within overlapping school zones.

Harmon also cited rules that said a player must be enrolled at the beginning of a semester to be eligible and he and his parents must reside in that school’s attendance zone.