ALBANY — Nazareth coach Apache Paschall and his players made the trek upstate Thursday with clear heads.
Sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed with The Post that it was determined in a CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens principals committee meeting Wednesday morning that Paschall would be cleared of any wrongdoings in his pending recruiting investigation if he complies with a few league requests, including writing a letter of apology to administrators for incendiary comments made in the press.
Those things can be completed after the Lady Kingsmen, the CHSAA Class AA state champions, play in the New York State Federation Class AA title game Sunday at the Times Union Center.
Paschall and Nazareth principal Providencia Quiles both declined comment on the matter. Brooklyn/Queens executive director Jim McElroy deferred all questions to principals committee chair John Lorenzetti, who was evasive when The Post finally tracked him down Thursday afternoon at his school, St. Edmund.
“You are making an assumption that something was decided yesterday,” Lorenzetti said. “There is nothing else to be said.”
The investigation began in early December after a published report documented Paschall entering eighth-graders’ homes and persuading them to attend Nazareth. The coach maintained all along that he had done nothing wrong, citing the league rule that states there can be no “professional” recruiting, or the use of money or gifts to lure a player to a school. Paschall is in his first season in the league after bringing his players over from St. Michael Academy.
Paschall, assistant coach Ron Kelley and Nazareth administrators met with the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Eligibility and Infractions Committee in late January and answered questions regarding the recruiting of eighth graders, players getting breaks on tuition due to them coming from St. Michael Academy and alleged threats in print on other teams.
On Feb. 16, CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens principals met and agreed to “table” discussions about Paschall’s investigation for a later date. But Quiles suspended Paschall for a week and two games that same day for breaking a media gag order about the investigation in a sit-down interview with The Post.
Sources said that the league was upset about comments Paschall made in The Post question and answer session, including one about the January meeting being like “a mob looking to lynch somebody.”
Nazareth went on to win a CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens first-place tiebreaker to win its first league regular-season title, one Christ the King had owned for 27 years. The Lady Kingsmen also won the Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan tournament title and beat Christ the King again in the CHSAA Class AA state championship game March 13 at Holy Trinity in Hicksville, L.I., to earn the right to head upstate.
In Albany, Nazareth will await the winner of a semifinal game between PSAL champion Murry Bergtraum and NYPHSAA titleholder Cicero-North Syracuse.