Ridgeway forfeits berth in tourney
Hoops team had ineligible player
The Ridgeway boys basketball team, considered a state-title contender, has been disqualified from further postseason play for using an ineligible player.
Bernard Childress, executive director of the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association, notified the school Thursday of its decision. Ridgeway was to play Southwind on Thursday for the Region 8-AAA tournament championship.
The ruling also means that the winner of Thursday’s Region 7-AAA championship game at Brighton between Dyer County and Craigmont will get an automatic berth to the Division 1 state tournament in Murfreesboro, which begins in two weeks. Southwind will play the Dyer County- Craigmont loser on Monday to determine the area’s second AAA representative.
In a letter to Ridgeway principal Jim Long, the student-athlete in question was identified as a transfer student from Louisiana but was not identified by name. After getting into disciplinary trouble at school, the student was found to be living in the Ridgeway district with a woman who was either his live-in girlfriend or wife and not his mother as originally thought, according to the letter.
The TSSAA also determined that the student had received a General Equivalency Diploma from the Shreveport Job Corps and had also falsified a transcript from Peabody Magnet High School in Louisiana.
As part of the investigation, Roadrunners coach Wes Henning told the
TSSAA that the player in question played in the closing minute of Tuesday’s 90-71 victory over Whitehaven in the Region semifinals.
TSSAA rules state: “When a team plays an in- eligible athlete in TSSAA tournaments or playoffs, the entire contest is forfeited and the team is removed from the tournament or playoff, and no team replaces that team in the tournament series.”
The player’s GED from Shreveport made him ineligible to compete at the high school level.
In his letter to the school, Childress commended the administration on the manner in which the situation was handled and for self-reporting the violation.
The Roadrunners were ranked either first or second in The Commercial Appeal’s Dandy Dozen for much of the season.
The ruling puts an end to a tumultuous postseason. Ridgeway was forced to play without 10 players in the District 15-AAA tournament because of a fight against Overton in the regular-season finale, then played in the Region tournament following the shooting death of assistant coach Jimmy McClain last week.