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Inglewood Girls Basketball Coach Says School Raided Account

INGLEWOOD (CBSLA.com) — The members of the Inglewood High School girls basketball team are used to having to raise funds to keep the program alive. But their coach says school administrators misappropriated more than $5,000 the team had raised, and have no explanation for where it is.

The Sentinels are coming off a season in which 10-year coach Tony Scott led them to the CIF-Southern Section final for the first time since 2010. The team was looking forward to its end-of-the-year banquet.

"I'm very demanding of them. Very demanding of them. And they deserve more," Scott told CBS2's Kristine Lazar.

In April, when Scott went to school administrators for the money to pay for the banquet, he said he was told the the team's account had a negative balance of $8,000 — a $13,000 swing.

"And then at the end of the year you're telling me we don't have no money, and not only don't have no money, we're in the red? I'm not having it," Scott said.

Scott said then-Vice Principal Jose Gallegos that the money went to expenses such as scorekeepers, which it never had to pay for before, and even to fund a boys basketball tournament.

The Inglewood Unified School District was taken over by the state two years ago for insolvency, and in March CBS2 uncovered more than $40,000 in expenses the district spent for principals and administrators to stay at a hotel in San Diego.

The district's superintendent said Tuesday that the girls basketball team's money may have gotten transferred into another team's fund, and he would have an answer for what happened within the next 10 days, although Scott said he has been trying to find out since April.

Late Tuesday night, an anonymous donor offered to pay for the team's delayed banquet.

 

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