8 months ago
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The 3A high school football playoffs will resume this Friday after the Arkansas Activities Association suspended it last week.
The Lamar School District and a player, initially deemed ineligible, can now play.
The association is not very happy with a judge's ruling and still plans to challenge it. Yet, in the meantime, the association says the playoffs should continue because it wouldn't be fair to other schools and athletes.
It's an unexpected week of football practice for the Mayflower School District even though coach Jed Davis feels like the season is over.
"We already did the preparation for our opponent. We felt like there was not much to do this weekend. It was a weird feeling," says Davis.
The playoffs were supposed to start last Friday without the Lamar School District. The Arkansas Activities Association Executive Director Lance Taylor says a Lamar player was ineligible.
"His parents stayed in Russellville. The young man moved in with his grandparents in the Lamar School District which is not a complete bona fide move," says Taylor.
Yet late Thursday, Fifth Circuit Judge Gordon McCain says Lamar and the student should play, which would change the bracket less than 24 hours before the playoffs.
"Some teams that were going to play at home will have to go on the road," says Taylor.
Normally, the final game is played at War Memorial Stadium, but because of the delay, they'll have to play at UCA.
Lamar School District's attorney Jay Bequette sent THV this statement:
The district believes that Judge McCain correctly ruled that the AAA arbitrarily and without basis declared the student athlete ineligible and required Lamar to forfeit the games in which he had played because the AAA mistakenly based its determinations on criteria that were not found in the rules of the AAA and that neither Lamar nor the student's parents had notice of.
Yet, Taylor shows THV in the athlete handbook on page 24, the student is only eligible in the school district where the parents live. Coach Davis says this is a lesson for all schools.
"I would think almost every school, will not let a kid play unless paperwork has been filed and they have it," says Davis.
Now that Lamar is back in the game, this means Atkins is out. For the past week, they've been looking forward to playing in the playoffs and their superintendent says they are very disappointed.
Superintendent Boyce Watkins says, "The kids were excited. The coaches had done all they could to prepare the kids. We did what we could to follow the rules."
Taylor says since the association represents all schools in the state, the fifth circuit judge should not have stepped in. McCain only represents a portion of the state.
