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Date Posted: 18:40:59 02/11/15 Wed
Author: Lolly Bowean
Subject: Coach who challenged JRW boundaries: 'It's tough, but the kids will be OK'
Coach who blew whistle on JRW irregularities calls title being stripped a "sad ending."
Chris Janes stood near Norris Field in Evergreen Park, where his Little League team lost badly to Jackie Robinson West, and explained why he spoke out about irregularities that eventually cost his rival the U.S. title.
"There are a lot of people that are obviously very emotionally attached to the team. I get that," Janes, 38, said Wednesday morning, hours after Little League International stripped Jackie Robinson West of the championship.
"I bought into the team, too, even as we were looking into the facts," Janes said. "I watched every one of the games on TV. They were a joy to watch. But that said, you look at it and when it becomes clear there is something fishy going on, you've got to take measures to fix it."
The Little League organization said "an extensive review" found the team "knowingly" placed players on the roster who did not qualify to play because they lived outside the team’s boundaries. The organization said Jackie Robinson West used a "falsified boundary map" for its 2014 season.
The league handed the U.S. title to the team from Las Vegas that Jackie Robinson West defeated in the national championship game.
As the team rose in acclaim, Janes said he heard about south suburbs claiming to be some of the boys' hometowns. He began to research their backgrounds, using public records like voter registration and address listings, and found that four or five of the players lived outside the team's boundaries.
"The more success they got, the more publicity, the more people out there from (the) south suburbs were laying claims to these kids," Janes said. "There are very specific rules out there, and the expectation is that we are all following and playing by the same rules."
Janes is a vice president of the District 8 Little League. His 12-year-old son plays on a team that was defeated last year by Jackie Robinson West.
Janes said he brought his concerns to Little League officials earlier last year, just as Jackie Robinson West was beginning to rise in the championship series. His conversations with high-level officials continued until December. Then on Wednesday morning, he heard the news.
"It's a sad ending to what would have been a great story," he said. "Given all the facts, it's an appropriate ending."
Janes said he thinks the coaches and staff of the Jackie Robinson West team made a conscious decision to recruit players they knew didn't live within the team's boundaries. Instead, he said, they used a map with new boundaries that had not been approved by rival districts.
To Janes, it was blatant cheating.
"It's tough, but the kids will be OK," he said. "I didn't randomly target Jackie Robinson. We play them on an annual basis. When it became evident that they were cheating, I felt compelled to bring forward the information. This doesn't have to do with any other issue than Little League baseball.
"It's tough. People are emotionally attached. It stinks because we're talking about 12-year-old kids. But they broke the rules, evidently, and Little League agreed with that. And they are being held accountable."
Janes has three boys who play Little League in the Evergreen Park Athletic Association. He coaches one team, he said.
"What sort of lesson are we teaching the kids? Little League is about the kids and the things we teach them: Building character, integrity. ... Once it was evident that cheating occurred, someone needed to be held accountable.
"They went through great lengths to obtain these kids," Janes said. "These are kids that lived really far away. They changed boundaries to fit addresses to make them eligible to play. This was a plan. This was not something they thought about the other day."
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