Any SC Bunker folks know about this situation?
SCHSL won’t enforce fines against teams that forfeited games against Gray Collegiate
The S.C. High School League won’t enforce fines against the Midlands teams that forfeited spring sports games against Gray Collegiate Academy.
Gray appealed to the league in a hearing held Friday, asking for help in levying and enforcing the Region 3-2A constitution that spells out penalties against region teams that cancel games. Their request was denied by a 15-0 vote. Gray will appeal the decision and take their argument to the league’s appellate panel Wednesday.
The SCHSL doesn’t enforce such fines that are spelled out by a region, commissioner Jerome Singleton said. There were no contracts signed for spring sports in the region. Contracts are in place for basketball and football games.
Gray Collegiate is a public charter school that competes in the S.C. High School League. Three traditional public schools — Fairfield Central, Keenan and Eau Claire — all forfeited games against the War Eagles in multiple spring sports.
Gray principal Brian Newsome said those forfeits cost the school more than $2,000 in losses from ticket sales and referee costs, and said some of the War Eagles’ senior nights had to be postponed until the playoffs. Newsome said the school still paid the officials who were scheduled to work those games. At least some of those cancellations came on the days of the scheduled games, Newsome said.
Gray and some of its charter and private school counterparts that are SCHSL members have come under fire in recent years because of concerns over fair play and how those schools build their athletic rosters.
Critics say the charters that are sports-focused build powerful teams and have an advantage with what amounts to a statewide attendance zone. And because they cap enrollment, Gray competes for state championships against the smaller high schools that are in Class 2A.
Newsome was asked Friday by executive committee president Jason Warren on why teams might have forfeited the spring games. After at first declining to speculate, Newsome answered: “They didn’t think they were going to be competitive against us.”
With Fairfield superintendent JR Green’s approval, Fairfield Central teams in the spring elected to not play Gray Collegiate in softball and in boys and girls soccer games, three days after each team was blown out in games by the War Eagles in those sports. Gray was awarded victories in each instance because of the forfeits.
Green, who is a member of the SCHSL executive committee, recused himself of voting Friday but did speak in the discussion, saying that he didn’t instruct coaches to not play and that those decisions were made on a team-by-team basis.
It remains to be seen if any of the Region 3-2A teams will forfeit football games this season against the War Eagles.
Fairfield Central, Newberry, Mid-Carolina and Eau Claire high schools all put “TBD” next to Gray on football schedules posted to social media. Newberry and Mid-Carolina are in the region for football only.
If those teams forfeit, Gray would only play four games and couldn’t make those games up. All of the War Eagles’ games are on the books and have been officially entered into Arbiter, the league’s scheduling system.
“We don’t know who is going to show up,” Gray football coach and athletic director Adam Holmes said during Friday’s testimony.
SCHSL won’t enforce fines against teams that forfeited games against Gray Collegiate
Here’s what the decision means, and what it could mean for football season.
