Judge won’t lift ban; Michigan prep star remains benched

DETROIT » A judge on Thursday rejected a plea from a Michigan State basketball recruit who’s been barred from playing his senior season after transferring to a new high school.

Thomas Kithier said his rights have been violated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association. But U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani said there’s no constitutional right to play high school sports or participate in any school-related activity.

That may be a “shock to some,” the judge said.

The MHSAA said Kithier is ineligible because his transfer to defending Class A champion Clarkston from Dakota was motivated by sports and a desire to play with another Michigan State recruit, Foster Loyer, who was his teammate on a summer team.

Kithier and his parents insist that he left Dakota because he wanted a better education. They turned to federal court after losing an appeal.

Battani said the law isn’t on Kithier’s side, even if he misses an “opportunity of a lifetime” by not playing a final year of high school basketball. The 18-yearold’s attorney, Ven Johnson, described it as a “death penalty.”

Kithier declined to comment on Battani’s decision. Outside court, another attorney, Steve Fishman, said the MHSAA “screwed over a kid” who didn’t do anything wrong.

During more than an hour of arguments, an attorney for the MHSAA said legal precedent weighed heavily in favor of the organization.

“The MHSAA’s obligation is to enforce the rules as written . ... Courts don’t opine on the wisdom of rules written by voluntary associations,” attorney Scott Eldridge said. ALAMEDA » The NFL said Thursday it will investigate whether the Oakland Raiders violated the “Rooney Rule” when they hired Jon Gruden as coach.

The Fritz Pollard Alliance called for the investigation on Wednesday out of concern that Raiders owner Mark Davis came to an agreement with Gruden before the team interviewed any minority candidates as required by the NFL since 2003.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement that the NFL will “look into this.”

The Fritz Pollard Alliance is dedicated to promoting diversity and equality of job opportunity in the coaching, front office and scouting staffs of NFL teams.

Davis said Tuesday at the news conference introducing Gruden as the team’s new coach that he had been trying to make the move for six years and finally believed it would happen after a meeting in Philadelphia on Christmas Eve, the day before Gruden worked a game between the Raiders and Eagles on ESPN.

“I felt pretty confident that he was all-in,” Davis said. “And that’s the term that we were using in our discussions and everything, are you allin? And I never wavered from all-in. And this time he didn’t waver, either.”

Davis fired Jack Del Rio a week later and the team officially hired Gruden on Jan. 6. Davis also said he wouldn’t have fired Del Rio if he didn’t believe Gruden would sign on as coach.

The Associated Press