Pennsylvania’s District 6 executive committee handed down sanctions Thursday against one of the top up-and-coming programs in the country, banning Bishop McCort Catholic from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association postseason for at least 20 months and suspending coach Bill Bassett for a year. 

The punishment stems from alleged violations of the PIAA rules regarding transfers and recruiting, according to a report in The Tribune-Democrat. 

Bassett, the father of Cadet World champion Bo Bassett, was hired in May to lead the Bishop McCort program. In recent months, several top young wrestlers from around the country have enrolled at the school, though the Bishop McCort camp has denied any wrongdoing and school president Thomas Smith told The Tribune-Democrat that an internal investigation found no violations. 

According to The Tribune-Democrat, District 6 executive director William Marshall declined to get into the specifics of the case against Bassett and the Bishop McCort program but he claims “there will be 200 pages of evidence” from the hearings that led to the decision. 

The Bishop McCort camp is expected to file an appeal with the PIAA. If the ruling is upheld, the Bishop McCort wrestling program could be banned from the PIAA postseason until 2025. 

For more details on the story, read Eric Knopsnyder’s reports on the ruling and reactions from Bishop McCort wrestlers and parents.