Appeal Date Set for Seneca Valley Football Player's Transfer to North Catholic

Former student Lucas Wildman and his family will appeal to bar the rising senior from playing football for North Catholic High School in the fall.

The hearing will be held Aug. 26 at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association headquarters in Mechanicsburg. The PIAA is the state’s governing athletic body

“We’re taking it to the next level with the PIAA,” said Mary Wildman, Lucas Wildman’s mother and a longtime teacher at Seneca Valley.

After reviewing Lucas Wildman’s transfer from Seneca Valley to to determine if he would be eligible to play sports at his new school, the WPIAL’s board of control ruled on July 12 that the teen could play any sport except football next year.

The league reviews transfers of student athletes and in some cases may hold hearings to ensure that athletics are not the sole motivation for school transfers. In Lucas Wildman’s case, league officials found the transfer to be motivated, at least in part, by athletic purposes, WPIAL Executive Director Tim O’Malley said.

The outcome disappointed the Wildman family, who maintain they are transferring their son for academic and not athletic reasons.

Mary Wildman said she could not understand why Seneca Valley would not sign off on her son’s transfer to the smaller private school – which would have made a hearing unnecessary -- when he was not a starter for Seneca Valley’s football team.

“Lucas is going to play for a single A school and will never play against Seneca Valley, so why fight him?” she said.

She added the appeal to the PIAA originally was set for last week, but it was postponed because Lucas had dental surgery scheduled for the same day. The PIAA chose the new date in August, she said.

Linda Andreassi, Seneca Valley's director of communications, said the district would be represented at the hearing as required. She said the district would make no further comment until the PIAA renders a decision.

Until the appeal is resolved, Lucas Wildman is allowed to participate in football practices with his new school's team, his mother said. If the PIAA overturns the WPIAL’s decision, Lucas would miss one scrimmage game for North Catholic, she said.

“He can go to [football] camp, he just can’t play in any games at this point,” she said.

A civil lawsuit filed in November in Butler County Common Pleas Court by Dave Holl, Seneca Valley’s head football coach, against Davy Wildman, Lucas’s father, is ongoing.

In the suit, Holl says Davy Wildman slandered and libeled him in comments he made and a letter he distributed at a school board meeting regarding Holl’s behavior. In his response to the lawsuit, Davy Wildman acknowledged writing and submitting a letter to the school board, but said he did not make false statements about Holl, according to court records.

Mary Wildman said Lucas is eager to have the transfer case resolved. Right now, the hearing is hanging over him before he starts at his new school in the fall, she said.

“Here he is trying to get on with his life and get away from all that and it’s not fair to him,” she said.