Everyone knows the drama with Turlock High football. Though do they really? Between January and May 2025, Turlock High School was found in violation of four bylaws, dealing with rules on eligibility and recruitment, pre-enrollment contact, and off-season activities.
Some Turlock High School varsity football players and one of their coaches got suspended for recruiting players from other schools, such as Turlock Christian. During a recent board meeting, the varsity players got approved to play again, but their coach remains suspended for the season.
The Turlock Journal claims that,
“The official announcement on July 29th read that there was ‘participation of non-high school individuals with the THS football team via private business organizations.’ Although the private business organizations were not specified, it has been confirmed the violations revolved around the operations of ‘The Lock,’ a non-contact 7-on-7 and 5-on-5 offseason football program – operated largely in part by Turlock high coaches – that invites players from different schools and has age levels as low as 8U.”
The Turlock Journal claims that there was a secret football program run by mostly Turlock High School football coaches to have better football players in the future. In order for the Turlock football team to be better, they recruited kids as young as 8 years old, to start playing and practicing with the intention of them going to Turlock and being amazing at football, so the Turlock High School football program would be better.
When asked about the recruiting for their football program and if it would affect them, a freshman football player at Turlock said,
“I’m not sure if it will, but if it might then it might suspend our league at Turlock for maybe a year.”
When asked again about how the students at Turlock feel about it, he said,
“They either think that it was a mistake or that Turlock did nothing wrong.”
When a freshman football player from Pitman was asked the same question, he said,
“It doesn’t really look good on everyone else, but it looks good on us. We don’t really go around saying like, oh, hey, they did that, they’re cheaters and that kind of stuff. It also gives us a better chance of winning the harvest bowl.”
Turlock first decided to suspend assistant coach and “The Lock” founder Darron Silva for the season, as well as 5 varsity players from Turlock that were allegedly helping with the recruitment. Although the players are being allowed to play again during the season, the coach is allowed to start returning to practices. The Turlock High School principal Dave Kline stated that those coaches interested in coaching at Turlock high had to give up coaching “The Lock” for the 2026 season, and that the offseason program would not be allowed to use Turlock’s facilities.
The Turlock High School football team. Once known for their impressive team, now known for their recruitment scandal. The scandal led to players being benched, coaches being suspended, and a possible change to the playoff format. The team’s reputation suffered, serving as a cautionary tale about sportsmanship and integrity in sports.