inglewood hearing decision

socalogo.gif (8739 bytes)
SoCalHoops High School News

Inglewood Hearing: Player Ineligible,
No Seeding Change--(Feb. 15, 2000)

We finally heard from Jim Staunton, the Commissioner of the Southern Section of CIF regarding the Inglewood "situation" and indeed there was a hearing yesterday. According to Staunton, Inglewood's seeding in the playoffs will not be affected, and they will still be eligible to participate in the tournament.

"Under the rules, the only one affected, for purposes of the playoffs only, is the ineligible player, and he cannot participate," said Staunton. "Of course, if a team uses an inelgible player in the playoffs, that team could suffer consequences, including the forfeiture of any playoff games in which the player plays."

"But under the new rules we implemented two years ago, even though Inglewood used an ineligible player in some of its final league games, the team won't suffer being held out of the playoffs, which used to be the rule," explained Staunton. "We changed the rule because we didn't believe it was fair to punish an entire team, when sometimes a student can be deemed inelgible just for not submitting the right piece of paper."

Staunton also explained, however, that the Bay League, when it meets, will likely strip Inglewood of it's league title for the use of the ineligible player. "That's something that's not within our purview though," Staunton said. "It's up to the league to determine what the penalty should be."

As far as switching the playoff seedings around as a result of the hearing decision, Staunton said that the brackets will remain the same. "We don't have time to move the games now, even if we wanted to."

Staunton declined to identify the ineligible player but did say that the issue came up last week when Redondo and Inglewood played a league game, and Redondo's coaches noticed a new player on the Inglewood roster, and they either inquired about or directly challenged the player's eligiblity.