After two weeks of appeals Greater Beckley head coach Justin Arvon told Lootpress that the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission, the governing body of high school athletics in West Virginia, has upheld the decision to rule four Greater Beckley boys basketball players ineligible.
The players in question were Azel Carmichael, Sherlock Padmore, Latarj Chase and Miko Robinson.
While the news was unfortunate for Arvon and Co. there was a silver lining.
“The good news we received is that all of them aside from Azel will be eligible for next season,” Arvon said. “Azel graduates but where there isn’t a rule on the book about F1 visa status the SSAC heard our appeal and we did get some good news out of it. So we lost the appeal for them to have their eligibility reinstated for this season but won the appeal to have them eligible for next season starting with the first day of school. I had a good conversation with Bernie Dolan (the Executive Director of the SSAC) and we talked about it for about 30 minutes yesterday. I think he understands we weren’t trying to do anything nefarious.”
The four players were ruled ineligible prior to Feb. 15, with Padmore and Robinson last playing in a 78-48 win over Webster County. Carmichael’s last game was a Feb. 11 win at Teays Valley.
The four were ruled ineligible after they participated in eight JV games last year with the expectation they would never be eligible to play at the varsity level due to their F1 visa status. After a meeting with the SSAC last April, Arvon and Co. were informed they would be eligible to play despite their visa status but were informed a few weeks ago that because they participated in the JV games last season, they would be ineligible.
The SSAC did confirm to Lootpress that all games the four players participated in are deemed forfeits, dropping the Crusaders’ record from 15-6 to 3-18 prior to Thursday evening’s matchup with Teays Valley.
Regardless of the decision reached on Wednesday – when the appeals were heard – the rest of the Crusaders are still eligible for the postseason and qualify, as do all SSAC team across the state.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
