All Matt Vonk wanted was to go to university and play football. Instead, he's been given a first-hand education in Canadian Interuniversity Sport bureaucracy, and the learning hasn't been fun.
Vonk, a 20-year-old offensive lineman, has no place to play this season.
Last fall, Vonk had been allowed to transfer to neighbouring Wilfrid Laurier and play immediately after Waterloo administrators shut down the football program over a performance-enhancing drug scandal. The CIS waved the sit-out rule for the drug-free athletes based on compassionate grounds.
On Wednesday, the Burlington-born kinesiology student was informed by the CIS eligibility committee he would have to sit out the 2011 season if he transferred back to the University of Waterloo, because he played at Laurier.
Vonk, who tested clean, enrolled at Laurier as a visiting student and took only three courses because he was already in a full-time co-operative program at Waterloo. In late July, he asked for clarification on his visiting-student status and was then told he would need to take the required six courses to play for Laurier in 2011. He doesn't want to do that because he's already a full-time student at Waterloo and Laurier doesn't have all the courses he needs to complete his degree.
Months later, officials from Waterloo and Laurier asked if Vonk could switch back to Waterloo without having to miss the football season. They were told the rules were clear and final.
"I'm disappointed," Vonk said Thursday. "It was pretty devastating."
That was as much as Vonk wanted to say. Waterloo athletic director Bob Copeland was far more outspoken.
Copeland explained he had no trouble with athletes having to meet specific academic requirements to play in the CIS. What concerned him was that Vonk's case is different and deserves an exemption based once again on compassionate grounds.
"Had Matt had a better understanding of playing at Laurier as a visiting student he might have made a different decision," said Copeland, who informed the CIS on Thursday he would be appealing the matter based on "what we consider to be mitigating circumstances."
Tom Huisman, the CIS director of operations, confirmed Waterloo's request for a hearing and said, "Should they have new and relevant information not made available previously then another hearing of the eligibility committee could be held."
Copeland called the decision to allow Waterloo athletes to transfer without sitting out a year, only to make them sit out a season when coming back, "a textbook case of 'pay me now or pay me later' … these students essentially got a one-year reprieve last year by the CIS and it looks as though they will have to pay the price in 2011, which is very unfortunate."
The obvious mitigating factor in Vonk's case is that he's been through the wringer having done nothing wrong. Copeland described Vonk as a good student. "He's not trying to circumvent the rules, he's trying to navigate through them," said Copeland. "If we can't get the CIS to rule in Matt's favour on compassionate reasons, it would be seen as really intransigent."
But while acknowledging Vonk's plight, even the uniqueness of it, Huisman insisted the CIS had been clear and consistent with its rules.
"We made a one-time accommodation to the transfer rule. After that, all the rules apply, and that's where we are. On July 28, Matt Vonk said, 'I hear what you're saying but here's a request for relief of my academic requirements.' The eligibility committee said no. Then it's five months later and he's asking, 'Can I go back to Waterloo?'
"He was told, 'You can go back but you'll have to sit out a year because that's the rule.' "
Sixty-one Waterloo players were drug tested last spring and nine produced adverse results. When the football program was suspended for a year, seven players transferred to Laurier. One of those players, defensive lineman Steve Ples, had also hoped to play at Waterloo this season but has been denied like Vonk.