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Georgia Perimeter College soccer coach OK with over-age issue with Clotaire Joseph

Georgia Perimeter soccer coach Marc Zagara had high expectations when he made the trip to Fort Myers High School in mid-March to see Immokalee?s Clotaire Joseph play in the Southwest Florida Senior Soccer Bowl.

Zagara was intrigued by the way Immokalee principal and former assistant soccer coach Manny Touron described Joseph?s ability. And once Zagara caught a glimpse of Joseph?s quickness, explosiveness and vision for the game, he was impressed, to say the least.

?We recruited Clotaire mainly because of Manny to begin with,? Zagara said. ?Then when I saw him play, he was everything we expected him to be. He had good size and very good skills?

Joseph scored a team-high 35 goals and recorded 19 assists, leading the Indians to a 25-2 record and one penalty shot of reaching the state semifinals. He earned an all-state selection and the 2006 Naples Daily News Soccer Player of the Year award.

But in the last month, Joseph, 21, has been one of five over-age men discovered participating on the Immokalee High soccer team. Sinel Ulysse and Fred Selbonne, both of whom are 20, 23-year old Josh Jean-Mary and 30-year old Blandel Jean were the other men discovered.

Florida High School Athletic Association rules prohibit anyone over the age of 19 years, and 9 months from participating on any athletic team.

The FHSAA has since stripped the Immokalee soccer team of its 2004 and 2005 district titles and posted a two-year ban from the playoffs. The football team had its 2005 district title taken away and is banned from making the 2006 playoffs as a result of one of the men participating in two games last season.

Zagara said Joseph has already made a verbal commitment to attend Georgia Perimeter, a two-year junior college with six locations around the state.

Despite being unaware of Joseph?s age, Zagara said he still expects Joseph to attend the school.

?We?ve got all his application materials in, as far as I know,? Zagara said. ?If he calls and says, ?I?ve changed my mind,? then that?s fine, but we don?t expect that to happen.?

Since the Georgia Perimeter soccer program started in 1992, Zagara has led his teams to eight National Junior College championships, including one this past season. Zagara said he recruits a lot of athletes from South Florida. Twelve of the 25 players on the 2005-06 roster are from Florida.

?We actually had a couple of kids from Miami just come up and try out for our team one year,? he said. ?... Every year it seems like we get a few more South Florida kids.?

During his tenure as coach, Zagara has dealt with a number of high school athletes from other countries. He doesn?t believe a governing body at the high school should be more or less responsible for policing foreign-born students with multiple birth certificates.

There is a possiblity Joseph, who graduated from Immokalee High earlier this month, and the four other men could be deported back to Haiti for having multiple birth certificates or even face criminial proceedings because of possibly falsifying birth certificates.

If Joseph attennds Georgia Perimeter, he will be eligible to compete this season due to a 21-year-old age limit rule for incoming freshmen that was dropped in 2005, according to Lynzee Grooms, Director of Compliance at National Junior College Athletic Association.

?The only time a high school student would not be eligible with us is if they did not graduate high school and if they did not have a GED,? she said.

Joseph received his high school diploma.

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Georgia Perimeter College Men's Soccer

The men's soccer team will hold tryouts for the 2006-2007 season

Thursday Aug. 3, 8 a.m. at the Dunwoody campus soccer field