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Over the last few weeks, high school sports officials in Illinois and Connecticut did a great job raising the bar when it comes to bad judgment and behavior.
A quick rehash of both events: In Illinois, Fenwick High School led Plainfield North, 10-7, in the closing seconds of a football playoff game. The intentional grounding rule was incorrectly applied to Fenwick, giving Plainfield North the ball and time for one play, which it used to kick the tying field goal. Plainfield North then won, 18-17, in overtime.
The Illinois High School Association acknowledged the game officials’ mistake and apologized to Fenwick, but added that all rulings made by on the field officials are final, and Plainfield North would advance to the state championship game. Fenwick sought a court order declaring it the winner, but on Wednesday, a judge ruled with the IHSA.
Meanwhile, in Connecticut, the Danbury High School boys soccer team was told by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference it had used an ineligible player in a 4-2 tournament win over Shelton. The problem is, the player was eligible. He worked all fall to get his grades up. He was eligible when grades posted on Nov. 4, and he was still eligible when his grades were certified by school administrators three days later. On Nov. 8, he played.
At the CIAC offices, which must still send all correspondence via carrier pigeon and use whale oil for light, it was ruled that because the paper report card was not issued until Nov. 17, the player was still ineligible. It didn’t matter that Danbury’s marking period was over and the grades were official.
Did Fenwick High get jobbed? Of course, but guess what, gang? That’s life. Life is going to try to beat you down every chance it gets. You’re going to get dumped, or get a grade lower than you feel you’ve earned, or passed over for a job for which you know you’re qualified. Life doesn’t care one bit for your feelings. Life doesn’t care about what’s fair. Life just is. For Fenwick, this is one of those times. How they handle the disappointment is what matters now.
Did Danbury get jobbed? Absolutely. A rule that doesn’t take into account advances in technology isn’t a rule at all, it’s an anachronism that does nothing to honor the spirit of the rule it intends to enforce. Shame on the CIAC for its narrow viewpoint, and shame on anybody at Shelton for pushing the matter. Again, how Danbury handles this moment is what’s important. Like Fenwick, Danbury is forced to eat a big bowl of Life’s Not Fair.
If you saying to yourself, thank goodness this stuff doesn’t happen in Maine, don’t be naive. It already has.
If you go to the Maine Principals’ Association web site, and look at the list of past high school basketball champions, you’ll see it in Class A boys, 2010. Where once the name Cheverus was listed as champion now simply reads “Vacated.”
That season, Cheverus senior Indiana Faithfull was the best high school basketball player in the state. When the season was over, he was named Mr. Maine Basketball by the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches. The problem was, as a transfer student from Australia, Faithfull was a semester ahead in high school. The sprint semester of his senior year was essentially overtime for Faithfull. When Cheverus discovered this, the school stopped playing Faithfull, on advice from the MPA. That worked until the Faithfull family was issued a temporary restraining order, allowing Faithfull to play in the postseason, on the basis that the MPA rule discriminated against him based on Faithfull’s national origin.
More than two years later, in the fall of 2012, the MPA stripped Cheverus of the title. Why Cheverus didn’t push harder for a waiver when the issue first arose is the question. The MPA has issued waivers in similar cases. One that immediately comes to mind is a Waterville basketball player in the 2012-2013 season, right around the same time the MPA was telling Cheverus to clean that Gold Ball out of the trophy case. In the Waterville case, a student dropped out of school, returned, and needed a fifth year to graduate. That student was rightly rewarded by the MPA with an extra season of eligibility.
It’s not surprising that any of these things happened. In an age where it’s easier to go to court rather than use raw deals as a teaching tool, it’s surprising it doesn’t happen more often.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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