Marietta appeals as investigation into ineligible football players continues

Marietta City Schools is appealing the Georgia High School Association decision that stripped the Blue Devils of their eight wins from the 2017 football season, according to an administrator.

Meanwhile, the GHSA, which governs athletics for participating schools, is continuing to look at evidence in the case.

The decision came after an investigation called for by the GHSA and carried out by the school revealed two players did not meet the residential requirements to play on the team and that their required eligibility forms were filled out incorrectly.

“In each situation, the student in question is a child of a teacher at a Marietta City Schools (MCS) elementary school and attended MHS through a district policy that permits children of employees to attend an MCS school,” MCS Superintendent Grant Rivera said in a statement. “It was determined that one student legitimately moved into the Marietta attendance zone at the time of enrollment and later moved outside the MCS attendance zone; the other student never established residency in the MCS attendance zone.”

The GHSA’s executive director, Robin Hines, told the MDJ a high school student who lives outside the school district can participate in athletics if their custodial parent is a certified employee — that is, someone like a teacher or administrator who carries certification — at the same high school.

In this case, the students’ parents were employees at elementary schools within MCS, not Marietta High School, making them eligible to attend the school, but not to play.

“I don’t know what the reason is,” Hines said. “That’s what the rule is.”

The students’ paperwork incorrectly stated that their parents worked at MHS, making it appear they were eligible.

Hines declined to comment on how the GHSA caught wind of the alleged violation, or on much of anything else.

“This is an ongoing investigation and I don’t have any comment at this time,” he said.

Rivera sang a similar tune outside Marietta City Schools’ First Steps event at MHS on Saturday morning, declining to comment beyond his written statement on the basis that the investigation was ongoing.

The investigation included an interview conducted by Rivera and the school system’s head of HR with Kelly Hastings, who worked as eligibility coordinator.

In a letter to the GHSA, Rivera and MHS Principal Keith Ball suggested Hastings had made “both innocent and inexcusable clerical errors,” and promised new protocols by which the athletic director would verify all eligibility forms before submitting them to the GHSA.

That athletic director will be Andy Dorsey, who took the job at Marietta High when longtime Marietta Athletic Director Paul Hall stepped down to take a teaching position at Marietta Middle School days before the news of the forfeiture broke.

Hall declined to answer questions about whether the job change had anything to do with what happened, or about anything else, referring to Rivera’s statement.

“The statement’s been put out and I don’t have anything to say other than what’s already been written,” he said.

The GHSA also made reference to alleged recruiting tactics by MHS Coach Rich Morgan and a booster parent. The school system’s investigation into these alleged tactics included reviewing emails and conducting home visits.

“Our investigation determined no evidence to suggest such recruiting violations occurred by any MCS employee or representative of the football program,” Rivera said in his statement.

School spokeswoman Tammy Garnes said it is not unusual for schools accused of wrongdoing to investigate themselves.

“Schools investigate themselves all the time, that’s part of our due diligence when it comes to being a high school that has high school athletics, that is overseen by the GHSA,” she said. “That’s a daily thing that we do, athletics directors and coaches do all the time.”

Hines of the GHSA declined to go into specifics, but said the GHSA also investigates, and could use evidence beyond what is provided by the school’s self report.

“We have information and we try to get it right,” he said. “There could be other sources.”