Afalava saga ends « Cliff Kirkpatrick

category: OSU Sports

Afalava saga ends 218CommentsAfalava+saga+ends2008-03-21+21%3A49%3A25Cliff+Kirkpatrick

Al Afalava agreed to a plea bargain with the Benton County District Attorney’s Office on Friday that drops the felony part of the charged from an arrest on Feb. 9, where he was cited for DUII, running into a bus shelter with his car and leaving it to walk home.

That allows the senior safety for the Oregon State football team to remain on scholarship for the coming season. He will be suspended for the season opening game at Stanford, according to coach Mike Riley.

Afalava pleaded guilty to DUII and reckless driving. The state agreed to drop the charge of hit and run.

Judge Janet Holcomb sentenced Afalava to a diversion program for the DUII charge. Holcomb imposed a 90-day license suspension and $457 in fees and fines on the reckless driving charge.
The amount of restitution to be paid to the City of Corvallis for destroying a bus shelter has yet to be determined, but there is insurance to help cover the cost.

Holcomb dropped the state’s request for 18 months probation and 60 hours of community service.

“At this point, we’ve had some in-house discipline as far as community service and he’ll miss a game,” Riley said earlier this week. “Al built up a long standing of good behavior, and it came out of the blue. It was a bad problem. I feel really good about it not happening with him again. The ramifications of that are huge for him and our team. The discipline has been good and easy because he understands the seriousness of the problem.”

- Cliff

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218CommentsAfalava+saga+ends2008-03-21+21%3A49%3A25Cliff+Kirkpatrick

Chris says:

March 21, 2008 at 6:54 pm

Good to hear. But what’s interesting is how Riley follows the discipline policy. Had Afalava played baseball under Casey, Al would only be suspended for a quarter or two and Casey would find a way to bend the rules, or simply disregard them. Riley has class, Casey apparently has no integrity.

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Matt says:

March 21, 2008 at 7:07 pm

With regards to Chris’ comment above: I must have missed something regarding the Reyes and Wallace issue. I thought they have been suspended for the series against Pepperdine (that would be 1 game for Reyes and 2 or 3 for Wallace). Did Casey change his mind and allow them to play, thereby bending the rules, or disregarding them? Is that why Chris stated that Casey has no integrity?

Just wondering if I’ve missed something in the news…I haven’t had a chance to follow it in every detail.

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Greg says:

March 21, 2008 at 7:23 pm

I think Chris was referring to the Mike Lissman issue last year.

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Cliff Kirkpatrick says:

March 21, 2008 at 7:26 pm

Wallace and Reyes should be suspended until their felony charge is dropped. That’s what OSU’s code of conduct says. Even if they were involved in a misdemenor, it would a five-game suspension (10 percent of a 54-game season).

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Chris says:

March 22, 2008 at 5:17 am

Casey is NOT following the OSU Code of Conduct. That’s why I am saying Casey lacks integrity. The rules are the rules. Riley honors them. Casey doesn’t. To me that is a problem. I have lost complete respect for Casey (and DeCarolis) over all of this. It’s incredible.

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Chris says:

March 22, 2008 at 5:42 am

Hey Cliff, how about an article showing the discipline difference between football (Riley) and baseball (Casey) as well as the other sports programs. I’d like to really see if the “national champions” play by a different set of rules, which is what it is looking like they do? Perhaps a direct interview of Casey on his ignorance of the rules would be a good one?

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Ray says:

March 22, 2008 at 8:38 am

Cliff, while you are at it, how about an article showing the discipline difference between all Oregon Universities in the State. Do the U of O, PSU, and PU have Codes of Conduct? I have not seen anything.

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Ken says:

March 22, 2008 at 10:21 am

Wow!!! Chris is bitter!!!! Did he get cut from the baseball program or something. I can’t imagine simply looking at the info we all have on this case and coming to the decisive conclusion that Casey has no integrity. Hidden agenda??? More than likely.

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GilesB says:

March 22, 2008 at 10:56 am

I think it much more likely that Casey has taken the position that his teams have not been the problem, that he has maintained discipline in the past and will do so going forward; that he will handle each situation based on its own merits and not based on an arbitrary punishment scale handed down by the AD and necessitated by the antics of the football squad.

I think that is the best approach, with the AD exercising oversite authority. Rules are rules – but I’m not real keen on the “punish upon accusation” approach that has been reported. I think it’s best if everyone follows the policy – but I can understand Casey’s position also.

Re: Lissman – in family situations it is pretty hard to understand what really happened from the outside looking in. I think there is a lot more to the story, and jumping to conclusions regarding Lissman, Casey or DeCarolis, given our limited understanding of the facts and the players, is simply a display of ignorance.

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Cliff Kirkpatrick says:

March 22, 2008 at 12:04 pm

Chris,

There’s little to do an article on at this point. Nobody liked Jay John, but he kept his players out of trouble. There were a couple minior things, but they were taken care of properly.

Football is well documented. Mike Riley put his foot down. Baseball has been easy on guys on basic college/baseball guy drinking stuff. Anton Maxwell was the usual suspect. He served some suspension time and a had a demotion.

The Mike Lissman thing, I wasn’t covering the team at the time so I can’t remember all the details. However, it wasn’t handled properly.

Also, Pat Casey doesn’t have to talk to the media about players due to privacy laws. I’ve asked him about the latest sitauation twice and he won’t talk abou it.

However, our editorial board is planning an editorial soon about him not following the code.

Ray,
No other college in the nation has an official written code of conduct. That’s what made it interesting when De Carolis did one. Most programs like to avoid anything that happens, until they have to do something. They call it taking it on a case by case basis.

And again, they are guidelines the AD put together. Riley follows them and is more strict. It’s up to the coaches to enforce the guidelines. Most of the coaches didn’t like it because it was something that was forced on them because of the football players.

GilesB,
The code is guilty until proven innocent. Many people don’t like that. I don’t, and made comment to such when it came out. But De Carolis feels his players should not be in a position to be accused, and that’s something I agree with, too.

However, in the real world college students, and athletes in particular, will be in trouble. You either don’t care or just follow the code and move on.

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Chris says:

March 22, 2008 at 3:57 pm

To those who bashed me….so what is the point of having a “Code of Conduct” if it is applied inconsistently or arbitarily? The fact remains if Al Afalava was a baseball player he wouldn’t have the same punishment as Reyes & Wallace. My issue is simply the fairness of the “policy.”

The whole point in having a “policy” is that it be followed.

The fact that Casey has chosen to remain silent is telling. Yes, he does have privacy laws he must deal with. But the fact remains that it APPEARS that he does not believe in discipline. He completely blew the Lissman thing off. (”I didn’t know about it until it was over…” That may be true, but Casey STILL didn’t do anything about it, despite the policy.)

I guess the bottom line is that if you win national championships you get some special treatment in the form of “looking the other way.” What is more shocking is how loose the policy is put out by DeCarolis…..that a single coach can unilaterily over-ride it.

While my respect for Riley went up, my respect for DeCarolis has waned, and my respect for Casey is that he is classless and will do anything to win. Look, Casey sacrificed his integrity here….that’s a sad sign.

Cliff….glad the editors will stand up! Keep the good articles and blogs coming…

And to Al Afalava, sign up for baseball dude! A few minutes in Casey’s baseball program and he’d find a way to turn your episode into a practice drill of some kind!

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Matt Bixby says:

March 23, 2008 at 12:47 pm

Chris,

If Pat Casey “is classless and will do anything to win”, then why aren’t John Wallace and Jorge Reyes playing right now? Why were they suspended for the Pepperdine series?

Pat Casey needs fresh arms right now like nothing else and his refusal to plug Jorge Reyes into the starting rotation flies in the face of your accusations.

When you consider the above Chris, you do come off as someone with an ax to grind, like it or not.

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Chris says:

March 23, 2008 at 2:00 pm

Hey Matt:

The bottom line is that the policy was not followed…..10% of the games, a series is less than 10% of the games. Read the policy. No Ax to grind, its just that if Al Afalava was playing baseball he wouldn’t have the same punishment.

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Doug says:

March 23, 2008 at 7:41 pm

Chris why don’t you wait until Reyes and Wallace play again to get on Casey. You may end up looking like a fool.

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Chris says:

March 24, 2008 at 7:08 pm

Hey Doug: Read the press releases on what has already been announced. Perhaps if you would read those you wouldn’t look like the fool here.

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Chris says:

March 24, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Hey Doug – here is Cliff’s posting the other day on the subject:

“admin Says:

March 20th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Wallace and Reyes have been suspended for three games. OSU send out a press release. Brooks posted it on his blog. A story will be in Friday’s edition, too.

The interesting thing is it’s only three games. According to the code of conduct, it should be 5.4 games with a 54-game schedule. OSU usually rounds down, so five games.

- Cliff”

It’s also in other places in the Gazette Times and other newspapers…..so you may want to check out the facts before you thrust yourself into the discussion….

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Chris says:

March 24, 2008 at 7:17 pm

And the official OSU press release:

“Oregon State Baseball Players Suspended CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University baseball student-athletes Jorge Reyes and John Wallace have been suspended for the upcoming Pepperdine series for a violation of team rules, head coach Pat Casey announced Thursday.

“Jorge and John are very good individuals and have a history of being terrific ambassadors for Oregon State University,” Casey said. “However, in this instance, they did some things that were out of character for them and not well thought through. There are consequences from your actions and I’m hopeful this is an educational experience for both young men.” Reyes, a sophomore right-handed pitcher, was last year’s College World Series Most Outstanding Player. Wallace, a junior outfielder, was a Pac-10 Academic Honorable Mention selection last season. “I understand and respect coach Casey’s decision,” Wallace said. “I deeply apologize for the incident. I sincerely regret my actions and putting coach Casey, and our team in this situation.” “This is an unfortunate situation I have put myself, my coaches and my team in and for that I am sorry,” Reyes said. “I respect coach Casey’s decision and vow to learn from this mistake. Like John, I realize the seriousness of my actions.””

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