They tested clean and they were punished. They switched schools only to miss out on the credits they needed and now Matt Vonk and Steve Ples can't go back and play for the University of Waterloo. Not this season.
The same Canadian Interuniversity Sport officials who allowed the clean players from the drug-trained Waterloo football team to transfer elsewhere without sitting out last season are not about to extend Vonk and Ples the same compassionate exemption this time around.
On Wednesday, the CIS eligibility committee ruled that if the two ex-Waterloo linemen returned to their former school they would have to miss the 2011 season due to sit-out requirements. The CIS decision stated: "If an individual participated with Wilfrid Laurier University during the 2010 football season and wishes to participate with the University of Waterloo during the 2011 season, he must sit out one year from his last game at WLU before he can represent Waterloo in competition."
Vonk, Ples and five other Waterloo football players switched to nearby Laurier after nine adverse drug test results forced Waterloo administrators to suspend the football program for the 2010 season. The Waterloo players who tested clean were allowed to attend another CIS school without having to sit out a season based on what was termed compassionate grounds.
The plan for some of the athletes who transferred to Laurier was to earn credits towards their Waterloo degree. In certain cases that wasn't applicable. Those athletes were interested in transferring back to Waterloo and asked if they could without having to miss a season of football.
In Vonk's case, a "request for relief of CIS restrictions" was considered by the eligibility commission and denied on July 28. Laurier appealed on behalf of Vonk, who had visiting-student status at Laurier while enrolled in a full-time co-operative program at Waterloo. That meant he could earn credits at both schools (which he did) and they would be applied towards his Waterloo degree.
In the end, Vonk didn't have enough credits at Laurier to play there in 2011 and must sit out the season if he transfers to Waterloo. Essentially, that leaves Vonk - and Ples - without a team. Vonk did not return phone messages Wednesday night.
"They've had their hearts ripped out again," Laurier football coach Gary Jeffries told the Kitchener Record. "How many times can you do that to a person?"
It is believed officials from Waterloo and Laurier both asked for transfer rule clarification last summer and received no such information. The CIS final ruling was supposed to have come before last Friday's deadline for course registration.
The only former Waterloo player who can return to the school's football team this season is receiver Dustin Zender, who will graduate with his degree in June. CIS rules allow students to transfer to Masters programs without sitting.