Investigation into Pleasant Vly. team continues

An investigation into the Pleasant Valley boys basketball program is still ongoing, acting Superintendent Dr. Charlene Brennan confirmed on Wednesday.

“We are in the process of investigating claims that there are students who are not residents of the district on the team, playing for Pleasant Valley,” Brennan said. “The investigation began because of reports and rumors that the students did not live in the district.

“It was brought to my attention either last week, or the very end of the prior week, that we were investigating. And that’s when we really started in heavily on investigating this.”

The Bears are currently 2-2 after posting a 2-20 record a year ago in head coach Bobby Hahn’s first season.

“We had heard, there was discussion in the community that this was occurring,” said Brennan.

“When we heard about that, we started looking into some things and that it did indeed warrant an investigation.”

When reached for comment, Pleasant Valley Athletic Director Tom Toth noted that all inquiries into the matter were being sent to Brennan. Attempts to contact Hahn and board president Donna Yozwiak were unsuccessful.

With a majority of the season remaining, Brennan noted that resolving the issue is her primary focus.

“This is top priority on my desk,” she said. “We hope to have the results forthwith because we are in the middle of basketball season. We have to finish this very quickly. If you are asking me for a time, I would say within days.”

Brennan noted that the standing of the players in question is not affected by the current investigation while it is ongoing.

“We are following our investigative process, and it’s important to us that we do that thoroughly,” Brennan said. “We either have students who should not be playing for us, or we have students who should be. And we want to make sure that we are doing it properly, and that whatever action, if an action is warranted, that we take that action. And if it proves that the students are legitimate residents of the district, then they should play for us. But this investigation will show us that.”

Though Brennan noted that she could not release any specific details while the investigation was ongoing, she stressed that the matter is one the district is not taking lightly.

“We are taking this very seriously and doing our complete due diligence,” said Brennan.

Pleasant Valley’s next scheduled contest is Friday night at Stroudsburg.