Judge delays decision on Class 4A girls soccer case
A federal judge held off on issuing a temporary restraining order Monday in the Title IX case pitting the parent of a Green Valley High School student against the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association.
U.S. District Judge Brian E. Sandoval said he will decide on the temporary restraining order "by the end of the week," and tentatively set a preliminary injunction hearing for Aug. 22 in the battle over whether Class 4A girls soccer in Southern Nevada during the winter will be sanctioned in the same manner as during the fall in Northern Nevada.
"I want to have a full, thorough hearing," Sandoval told the court at the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson, the father of Green Valley sophomore-to-be Emma Johnson, filed an emergency action against the NIAA on July 31.
The NIAA Board of Control has voted three times to move Class 4A girls soccer in Southern Nevada from winter to fall, when teams in Northern Nevada play, to allow for a single state champion.
Such a move would have prevented Emma Johnson from playing soccer and volleyball, which she also participated in as a freshman, during the coming school year.
If girls soccer was moved to fall, the only Class 4A winter girls sports in Southern Nevada would be basketball and bowling, compared to basketball, bowling and wrestling for boys.
Shortly after the NIAA Board of Control's March 26 vote to shift the season from winter to fall, Eric Johnson filed suit seeking to block the move. He eventually dropped the Clark County School District from that action because of its decision to have Class 4A girls soccer teams play an independent schedule. The district also hired a Title IX consultant.
The NIAA, though, remains a target.
"I think sanctioning is recognition by the state body of the sport, the players and their accomplishments," Eric Johnson said.
Johnson took offense to the NIAA's Board of Control meeting June 26, when the board discussed how Class 4A girls soccer in Southern Nevada would not be part of the state tournament or awards if it was played in the winter.
"Clearly, the NIAA understood and intended to punish girls playing in the Clark County School District with this move," Johnson told the court.
NIAA Board of Control president Ray Mathis denied that.
"There is nobody on that board who would vote to hurt kids," said Mathis, who is also executive director of athletics for the school district.
Contact reporter Tristan Aird at taird@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203.
