El Camino coach Mamo Rafiq denies allegations stemming from Kiku Parker’s transfer saga
El Camino High School athletic director Ron Concklin and boys basketball coach Mamo Rafiq dispute the assertion that they wanted to block the transfer of the program’s all-time scoring leader in an eligibility case that was resolved last week, and Rafiq soundly rejected any notion that race played a role in the transfer saga.
A CIF hearing officer cleared Kiku Parker to play his senior season at Grant High School after the Sac-Joaquin Section initially deemed him ineligible to compete. Parker will play his first game for the Pacers on Friday.
The issue was whether or not Parker, an All-Metro guard for El Camino last season with college scholarship interest, was recruited to play for the powerhouse Pacers, a violation of CIF rules. Grant coaches and administrators denied that they engaged in any recruiting tactics.
The Parker family hired a law firm to represent their son, contending that Rafiq and El Camino officials intended to force Parker to sit out his final season as some sort of payback for leaving El Camino.
That is not true, Concklin and Rafiq told The Sacramento Bee in an hour-long Zoom call as they explained their side of the story for the first time. Neither was allowed to speak to The Bee in the days leading up to the Dec. 6 CIF hearing or in the immediate aftermath as the San Juan Unified School District wanted to wait until the hearing was complete before allowing any of its employees to go on the record.
Concklin and Rafiq said they did not approach the CIF regarding speculation that Parker last spring was ready to transfer to another school. In fact, the two said, the CIF’s Sac-Joaquin Section office reached out to them for clarification, and they put together a timeline of text messages and photos showing pre-enrollment contact between Grant and Parker, including images of Parker playing summer ball with the Pacers days after leaving El Camino.
Last week, however, a CIF hearing officer concluded the pre-enrollment contact was because Parker had known Grant players and coaches because he grew up in the area. Parker was then cleared to compete.
Parker has maintained that it was his “dream” to play at Grant. Parker’s family enrolled him at El Camino to challenge him as a student and to get him out of his comfort zone.
“We advocated for Kiku as a student and an athlete here,” Concklin said. “We wish him well. Why would we try to strong-arm the kid to stay? I’d never do that to a kid. We’re reasonable people. We didn’t try to block anything.”
Rafiq said a “character assassination” ploy by the Parker legal team painted him as a bullying racist, saying, “It was a big hit on our school and program. To say we were trying to ruin (Kiku’s) life was not only completely false, but it’s hurtful.”
Rafiq said he can speak from personal experience about racism. Rafiq in 2001 was profiled in an ESPN story about his life at Idaho State as the only Afghan native playing NCAA Division I basketball. He later coached the Afghanistan national basketball team.
“It’s sad and it’s unfortunate,” Rafiq said of being called a racist. “This affects me as a human being. I was born in Afghanistan. I’m a refugee. At El Camino, I work with refugees and ethnic minorities to promote the possibility of education post high school. El Camino is an outstanding school and one of the most diverse in all of Sacramento.”
Rafiq detailed to The Bee how he and the Parker family were once close, including coaching Parker from the fourth grade through his junior season. The Parker and Rafiq families traveled often for basketball tournaments. Rafiq said, “Parker was an extension of my family.”
Rafiq also disputes how the Parker family viewed the heated exchange between Parker and the coach a year ago in a basketball tournament in Yuba City. The Parker family said Rafiq humiliated their son by cursing him, ordering him to remove his jersey and telling him to leave the gym following a heated exchange during a stoppage of play.
Rafiq said he barked at Parker during a time out, common in this sport, and Parker barked back.
“I told him to ‘stop your whining,’ and then he (cursed me),” Rafiq said. “I told him to go to the locker room. ‘You’re done for the day.’ I continued to advocate for Kiku. He rejoined our team.”
After El Camino’s season ended in late February, Rafiq nominated Parker for Bee All-Metro and Capital Athletic League MVP honors. The entire transfer saga, Rafiq said, ended a good relationship between him and the Parker family, including Parker’s father, Kiku Parker Sr.
“Did this mess up our friendship (with Parker Sr.)? Absolutely,” Rafiq said.
Rafiq added: “If I did what they said I did (in the tournament game), I’d be fired. I wouldn’t have a job. It’s sad the way they went about it. It’s heartbreaking.”
Grant and El Camino do not play in the same league or in any holiday tournaments this season, nor do the schools compete in the same division in the playoffs, all the more reason, Concklin said, not to block any transfer. There was no spite, he insisted.
Said the San Juan Unified School District in a statement to The Bee, “Now that the CIF Sac-Joaquin review has been completed and a ruling issued, we want to publicly make clear that at no time did Head Coach Mamo Rafiq, Athletic Director Ron Concklin, nor other staff at El Camino Fundamental High School seek to prevent our former student, Kiku Parker Jr. from having the opportunity to compete. CIF officials asked our staff about their knowledge of certain circumstances and our staff complied with those requests as we would with any investigation. We are relieved that Kiku was able to have his case thoroughly reviewed as he deserves, and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”
The statement continued: “However, Coach Rafiq is disheartened by the statements that have been made in the media and on social media regarding his efforts to support students. The coach has a long and documented history of specifically supporting Kiku and his family, personally, academically and as an athlete. We are disappointed if any negativity in the relationship was a driving factor in the decision to transfer schools. As a coach and intervention specialist on our campus for the last four years, Coach Rafiq has made a positive impact on our school community and the lives of our students each day, which I know he will continue to do.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 6:41 PM.