OSG High: Did A Team Go Too Far In Blocking A Special Needs Athlete...???

((HT: ABC 15 Phoenix))

It was the last game of the regular season for two teams in the Phoenix area- Mountain Ridge and North Canyon.

Mountain Ridge was up 40 early in the fourth quarter when they put in an autistic student as a defensive player. North Canyon went on the whistle and played as normal. And when Mountain Ridge's defensive players saw the student getting manhandled, all hell broke loose.

Both benches emptied and the game was called a double-forfeit since both teams had ejections that didn't leave enough players on the field to play the rest of the game.

Mountain Ridge maintains that North Canyon knew about the athlete. North Canyon says they didn't know.

Here's Nohe Graf catching up with the mom and the athlete at the center of it all...


Mountain Ridge finishes 1-9 and North Canyon 0-10 counting the double-forfeit.

Wait... You Were Leading, But You Still Lost...???

((HT: KREX-TV))

Jack McDowell's Ogden Raptors were in Grand Junction to play the Rockies and the game was all Raptors- even through the rain drops.

But, in McDowell's mind, the field was getting unplayable and he was ready to take his team off to wait out any kind of rain delay. Problem was, at some point, if McDowell didn't put his team back on the field, they were going to forfeit.

No one broke that news to McDowell and it ended up being a forfeit and a 9-0 win for Grand Junction.
McDowell is less than pleased about that and is planning on contacting the league office about the result awarded by the umps.

Here's the highlights until the time of the forfeit

OSG High: 7 Ineligible For Chicago-Curie, Forfeiting Everything... But...

((HT: MyFoxChicago))

This classifies itself as "not good" for both Curie High and the Chicago Public Schools system...

7 of the players for the top-ranked team in the state of Illinois and the second-ranked team in the country were declared ineligible from the beginning of the season. As a result, the school is forfeiting 24 wins and the city title...

In Michael O'Brien's piece in the Sun-Times, Chicago Public School students can be eligible with a 2.0 GPA. If the GPA is less than that, an Independent Study Program has to be filed.

Neither was done...

Here's the latest from Curie High...
Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

In an interesting twist, Curie can still compete for the state title since the IHSA and CPS have different eligibility requirements. Condors coach Mike Oliver will be suspended for an amount of time to be determined by CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.

"We are unable to make an official comment until reviewing the final report from the CPS athletic administration on the investigation," IHSA executive director Marty Hickman said in a statement. "We hope to be in a position to do so by Monday."

"Chicago Public Schools has a proud tradition of athletic competition and sportsmanship, but our No. 1 responsibility to our students is providing them with a solid academic foundation that will serve them the rest of their lives," Byrd-Bennett said in a statement. "A district investigation into the academic eligibility of members of the Curie Metropolitan High School boys varsity basketball team found that a number of the players are academically ineligible to compete and, as a result, their season must be forfeited. 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."

It all started with an anonymous e-mail and a week-long investigation that wrapped up Friday.

Grambling President Speaks... If You Wanna Call It That...

((HT: ESPN))

Pedro Gomez has been hip-deep in the shenanigans going on at Grambling these days...

The university president has finally given a sit-down and you tell me how this sounds...


Grambling had to forfeit the game with Jackson State when only 22 players showed up on the bus that was heading to play the game Saturday. The school had to pay a $20,000 fine for the "no contest" and practice should be an adventure this week if players want to still sit out.

President Pogue sent a letter of apology to JSU:

“It was with deep regret that I called Dr. Meyers and told her what had happened,” Pogue said. “We have had our financial challenges this year, and unfortunately too many of our players don’t understand the degree of our fiscal challenges. We are sorry.”

“We share many of the frustrations of our players and we continue to work to balance those concerns with the financial restraints that have been placed on our institution by the state. However, though recent events have resulted in an unfortunate homecoming gap in the always exciting JSU homecoming weekend of activities, we ask that JSU alumni and fans respect the right of our football players to freely express their concerns as we do.”

But there aren't a whole lot of people who are talking about it these days in town and those who do aren't giving any names...