Boys basketball: Two sides to Manker story

Barry Faulkner

While CIF Southern Section officials continue to study documents

addressing the eligibility of 6-foot-10 Laguna Beach High boys basketball

transfer Chris Manker, divergent views are surfacing about background in

the case.

While Steve Manker, Chris’s father, told the Daily Pilot he has been

living with his son in Laguna Beach since they moved from Iowa in

December, Bill Harris, who coached Chris Manker at Valley High in West

Des Moines, said otherwise Tuesday.

“I know the family lives here in West Des Moines,” Harris said. Harris

could not substantiate his claim and said he hadn’t seen Steve Manker, a

7-foot former basketball player at La Habra High and Orange Coast

College, around town.

“I just know he’s living in Iowa.”

Further suspicion has been raised by events at the Jan. 18 Pacific Coast League meeting attended by principals and athletic directors from the

five league schools.

Costa Mesa boys athletic director Kirk Bauermeister said Laguna Beach

Principal Stuart Sims was asked at that meeting if he’d met Steve Manker.

Bauermeister asserts Sims said he had. But when asked whether the man

Sims met was 7-0, Bauermeister recalls the 6-2 Sims saying the man was

only slightly taller than himself.

Corona del Mar High Athletic Director Jerry Jelnick and Estancia boys

athletic director Tim Parsel support Bauermeister’s recollection.

However, University High Principal Diana Schmelzer could not remember any

specific conversation regarding Steve Manker and University Athletic

Director Mark Cunningham and Estancia Principal Tom Antal recall that

Sims said only that the individual he met was taller than he.

Attempts to reach other administrators in attendance was unsuccessful

Tuesday.

Sims, reached Tuesday, emphatically denied anyone other than Steve Manker

represented himself as Chris Manker’s father.

“There is no doubt the person I’ve been speaking to and who I met

originally was Steve Manker,” said Sims, who termed any other

interpretation “incorrect.”

Steve Manker’s ability to show he established sole residency in Laguna

Beach is the central issue in the case. Under section rules involving

transfer eligibility, proof must also be presented that Steve Manker no

longer resides in Iowa. Chris Manker’s mother, Cindy, continues to reside

in Iowa.

If the section office rules Chris Manker ineligible, Laguna Beach will

forfeit nine victories in which he participated, including PCL wins over

Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa and Estancia.

Hal Harkness, the section’s interim administrator for basketball, said

Tuesday he had yet to collect all the documents nesessary to resolve the

issue. He also said the ultimate ruling would be made by section

commissioner Jim Staunton, who is out of the office until Thursday.

Chris Manker was held out of Laguna Beach’s nonleague loss to Laguna

Hills Friday. Laguna Beach hosts CdM Friday at 7 p.m.