Top high school team in Chicago forfeits season

CHICAGO – Chicago Curie Metropolitan High School’s basketball team, ranked among the best in the nation, has forfeited this year’s games because several players were academically ineligible to compete, public schools officials announced Friday.

Chicago Public Schools said seven players on Curie’s 24-1 varsity team were ineligible from the start of the 2013-14 season.

Student athletes in the district must maintain a 2.0 GPA to participate in sports, or have an individual study plan in place to help them improve academically.

District CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett says Curie’s head coach Michael Oliver has been suspended.

“As adults, educators and mentors, it is our responsibility to teach our students right from wrong and, unfortunately, the adults let these student athletes down by failing to do that and comply with CPS policies,” Byrd-Bennett said in a statement.