I found it interesting that the article stated that the BOE/ACPS just accepted paperwork without investigating. You would think that under the circumstances that everyone knew, that the BOE/ACPS would have dug a little deeper. I still have problem with when actually did FH use an ineligible player. Said player was in an eligible status when he was on the field. Once he was put in ineligible status, he never saw the field again. I am a firm believer in INELIGIBLE is INELIGIBLE no questions asked. While also being a firm believer that Eligible is Eligible until proven Ineligible by the proper sources, provided proper sources gave the original eligibility status. My single question is if everyone did everything exactly by the book, (according to the article) then why would there be any punishment involved for any party. Just my opinion.
This is an excellent point. The only people who officially knew the player was ineligible was the family. You can say "yeah, but people knew he lived in WV". ..so? You CAN live in another state and go to a MD school. You pay $$ for it, but it can be done. So having common knowledge of one thing doesn't mean you know everything about that thing. The bottom line is, this kid was cleared to play by whomever job it was to clear him. He was not ineligible, he became ineligible once it was reported.
It's the same deal with a player who gets a failing grade that is reported right before homecoming and becomes ineligible. That kid may have been failing the entire semester, but until report cards come out or a teacher raises the issue he's still eligible. Do they make a team forfeit all their wins up to that point? No.
This all comes back to failed administrative oversight from the BOE/ACPS. They messed up. FH paid for that mistake. I said it in an earlier post, this raises a strict need for all out of district/state requests to have very specific parameters to be valid. They are given out like candy. There are kids in EVERY local school who don't live in their school's district. The process for how those permits are issued and monitored needs a serious review.
