Football Booster Says He Bribed Parents For Kids To Play At South Bay HS

LOMITA, CA — A former booster at a South Bay high school says he paid parents to bring their kids to play football for the program.

Narbonne High School graduate and self-proclaimed gambler, Brett Steigh, appeared on a YouTube podcast on Monday called FATTAL FACTOR, where he detailed his involvement in violating CIF and Southern Sections rules during his time as a booster. He implicated multiple prominent Southland football programs.

During the show, Steigh claimed he paid parents to transfer their kids to Narbonne High School so they could play for the football team — an act he says he did all on his own without the knowledge of any staff members.

“Everything I did, I did it on my own. I had no help," Steigh said during the explosive podcast. "I take full responsibility for everything.”

Steigh says he got involved with the Narbonne High School football program in 2015, giving money to coaches for uniforms, helmets, washing machines and whatever else the program needed.

But in 2018, he decided to "play the game that everybody else was playing," Steigh said, accusing private schools of also paying for players to transfer to their programs. That's when he began recruiting non-local players, paying their parents to have their kids join the Narbonne football team.

"I wanted to compete with the private schools," Steigh said during the show. "I thought it was unfair, the public schools being left behind."

The coaches, meanwhile, thought the players had moved to the South Bay with their parents all on their own, according to Steigh, who said he'd lie to staff members when questioned about a new arrival.

Other schools, such as Bishop Montgomery and St. Bernard, also benefited from his involvement, Steigh alleged during the podcast. Bishop Montgomery's president, Patrick Lee, denied any connection to Steigh, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

A St. Bernard football coach and Steigh were previously involved in an internal investigation while at Narbonne High School that led to a federal investigation in 2021, according to the Los Angeles Times. The coach was accused of failing to report donations from Steigh and not paying taxes on them, according to the report.

That investigation reportedly led to the high school's football program shutting down from 2021 to 2023.

Bishop Montgomery officials announced over the weekend that its football coach, Ed Hodgkiss, is "no longer employed" at the school, according to the DailyBreeze.

It's unclear if the coach resigned or was terminated, with officials saying the matter was confidential, according to the DailyBreeze, which said the high school's last season was filled with turmoil as rumors of a booster assisting in bringing in transfer students put the program under a spotlight.

Earlier this year, Narbonne High School's football team was banned from CIF postseason play and was forced to vacate its 2024 City Section Open Division championship after an investigation revealed they had violated CIF Section and Los Angeles Unified School District bylaws.

The investigation found that the program failed to provide accurate information about student athletes and made contact with potential student athletes before they were enrolled in the school.

The program's coach resigned at the end of the season and will be coaching at Cabrillo High School during the upcoming season. Doug Bledsoe has since been named the new head coach of the Narbonne High School football team.

To view the full episode of Brett Steigh talking about his involvement with the football programs, click here.

City News Service contributed to this report.