by Mike Peticca, Cleveland Plain Dealer

Mentor boys basketball coach Bob Krizancic and members of the team's booster club plan to appeal recent sanctions against the team at Thursday's Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Control meeting in Columbus.

Mentor played in the Smith-Ragu Utah Classic in Salt Lake City, Dec. 11-13, and, including a travel day, the players were not in Mentor for three school days. Bylaw 9-2-3 in the 2003-04 OHSAA Handbook states: "School-sponsored teams and individuals may compete in interscholastic competition in the United States and provinces of Canada when the travel distance exceeds 300 miles one way provided there is no loss of school time."

On Jan. 15, the OHSAA levied six sanctions against Mentor, including a suspension of Krizancic from coaching Mentor's last three regular-season games and all of its postseason tournament games. The Mentor athletic program was placed on probation for two years, and the boys basketball team would be forbidden from traveling outside Ohio for the next two years.

The Mentor group claims, however, the Utah trip was registered in advance with Mentor's school board as a field trip, and that the players completed homework assignments during the trip and that those days were not recorded as absences on the players' report cards.

Krizancic, incoming "Cardinal Cage Club" president Ann Giancola and vice president Elaine May met with Jamie Callender, a trial attorney and the state representative for western Lake County, on Monday in Callender's office.

The group planned to ask the Mentor School Board to file an appeal of the OHSAA sanctions against Mentor's athletic department - including the upcoming three-game suspension for Krizancic. Should the appeal process be completed, they will travel to Columbus for the OHSAA meeting. Callender said he is donating his time and services.

"By Mentor School Board policy, any time we apply for a field trip and it's signed off [by the school board], that is considered present for attendance purposes," Giancola said.

Callender said the OHSAA does not have a specific definition of school attendance, so a local school system's attendance policy should take precedence in any rulings. "I don't believe their board had a full appreciation of the Mentor attendance policy," said Callender, a 1983 Mentor graduate.

Mentor (8-7) is considered a solid contender to win its fourth straight Division I district championship. Krizancic left the meeting to conduct a practice and referred questions to Callender, Giancola and May.

The meeting ended after OHSAA offices were closed.