The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

TUCKER GIRLS DISQUALIFI­ED IN PLAYOFFS

GHSA ousts 21-9 squad from state tournament.

- By Todd Holcomb

The girls basketball team at Tucker was disqualifi­ed from the state tournament Monday, two days before its Class AAAAAA quarterfin­al game with Harrison, the Georgia High School Associatio­n announced. Tucker was found guilty of the GHSA’s recruiting and undue influence rules in securing players, the GHSA ruled after an 11-day investigat­ion.

Tucker (21-9) — the Region 4 runner-up and ranked No. 8 overall in the classifica­tion — had advanced two rounds in the playoffs with victories over Grovetown and Bradwell Institute and was set to play Harrison on Wednesday. Now, the GHSA is contacting Grovetown and Bradwell to allow them to play a makeup second-round game Wednesday, with the winner to face Harrison on Thursday. Saturday’s semifinals at West Georgia will go on as scheduled, the GHSA said.

‘’I have mixed emotions,’’ Harrison coach Steve Lenahan said. “I’m a little dishearten­ed at the fact that these allegation­s are true and did violate the rules, but at the same time, I’m happy that the GHSA caught it and dealt with it promptly. That typically doesn’t happen.”

This is believed to be the first time the GHSA has disqualifi­ed a team during the state basketball tournament.

Six Tucker players, including its three leading scorers, transferre­d to Tucker prior to this season. Among them are Jasani Buchanan (from Stephenson), Kerrigan Johnson (from Redan), Summer Dilwood (from Grayson) and Devyn Lockhart (from Banneker). All were teammates for a Georgia Pistols AAU team coached by Charles Stanard, the father of Tucker player Amaria Stanard, who was on the Tucker team last season.

Rumors of violations had gone on for weeks, but the investigat­ion began when Cobb County, home of Harrison, contacted the GHSA on Feb. 15. DeKalb County, home of Tucker, assisted with the probe.

Evidence presented included addresses used to register for AAU. None of the six transfers lived in the district at the time. It’s possible that all moved legally into the district, but the GHSA’s ruling came down to recruiting and undue influence, not bona-fide moves.

The GHSA issued this statement Monday afternoon:

“Based on informatio­n gathered during a recent investigat­ion, GHSA Executive Director Dr. James R. Hines has found Tucker High School to be in violation of GHSA by-law 1.70 concerning Recruiting and Undue Influence. As a result, the Tucker girls basketball team is ruled to have been playing several ineligible players this season and, therefore, must vacate their position in the ongoing state basketball tournament.’’

Asked if this might signal a new crackdown on illegal transfers, Lenahan wasn’t sure. Social media was a catalyst, as talk of violations had been spreading.

“My guess is, just because if you ask coaches across Georgia and their past experience­s, is that this would be an anomaly,” he said. “This situation just happened to have a lot of attention drawn to it. I have known of other schools having players on their teams that lived out of district that were recruited, and so does probably every other coach in Georgia, but it’s so rampant a problem that people turn a blind eye to it.”

J.J. Oliver, who became Tucker’s coach in 2017, was not available for comment.

Tucker is a traditiona­l power in girls basketball. The team was the Class AAAAA champion in 2014 and AAAAAA runner-up to McEachern in 2016.

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