Central Valley has to forfeit boys basketball victories

An administrative error regarding eligibility of a transfer student has resulted in the forfeiture of the entire Central Valley 2004-05 boys basketball schedule.

District 8 Board of Control principals made what board president Erik Ohlund called the gut-wrenching decision at their monthly meeting on Thursday.

He said the board had no alternative based on Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rules for interscholastic sports eligibility.

“There were knots in the stomach of most of the principals there,” said Ohlund, who is principal at Ferris. “They expressed that in more than one way because of the severity of the penalty. (The WIAA rules) provide us no option.”

Luke Clift was mistakenly deemed eligible when he chose to enroll at CV following eighth grade at East Valley Middle School. Central Valley activities coordinator Butch Walter said he misinterpreted WIAA Rule 18 regarding varsity eligibility as it applies to choice students. No one questioned it last year.

Clift played in all 21 of Central Valley’s games last year and averaged nearly seven points per game for a team that went 13-8 and lost in the first round of District 8 tournament.

“I feel bad for the kids from last year,” said Walter of his mistake. “They were not an 0-21 team.”

Under the WIAA transfer rule, students are eligible for varsity following an “immediate and bona fide change of residence into a school district,” or following a year’s enrollment at that school if they do not move.

There are exceptions for hardship and in many instances, students move between high schools within a school district and are immediately varsity eligible. Clift, by rule, would have been eligible only if EV’s ninth grade was still in the junior high, or if he had come from a private middle school/junior high to a public high school.

CV basketball coach Rick Sloan was upset by the decision.

“I’m all for a rule as long as it is fair and consistent,” he said. “Schools that self-report after discovering their error are the ones who end up being unduly penalized. Last year’s team success becomes tainted due to a clerical misinterpretation of what I consider an unfair and unjust rule.”

Several reasons made the decision hard, said Ohlund.

For one, the basketball season was nearly a year past before the mistake came to light and another is about to start. Clift is now eligible with three more years to play. Also, District 8 sponsored changing a rule to not penalize a team by forfeiture when a player, later to be discovered ineligible, enters for a few seconds of a game and has no bearing on the outcome.

“I think for many of the members it’s a carryover of that issue,” said Ohlund. “Principals at the meeting felt they were stuck between a rock and a hard spot. Our group will pen our feelings about that.”

But, he said, the WIAA rule is clear and there was no latitude. Executive director Mike Colbrese, who was in attendance at the meeting, told them that going against it could result in sanctions against the Greater Spokane League or District 8 in terms of state allocations, Ohlund added.

“It was very, very difficult,” Ohlund said of the decision. “There was empathy on our part because we could all have seen ourselves in that position.”