ACE: Whitmer football program under investigation
This just got sent along to me by an MGoBlog reader (thanks, Daniel!). It appears the Toledo Whitmer football program, home to Chris Wormley, is under investigation by the Ohio High School Athletic Association due to an "unusually high number" of transfer students on the football team, according to the Toledo Blade:
If Whitmer is found guilty, penalties could include suspension, forfeiture of games, forfeiture of championship rights, probation, public censure, denial of participation, or fines not to exceed $2,500 per occurrence, or such other penalties the association commissioner deems appropriate.
Neither Tom Snook, Whitmer athletic director, nor Joe Palka, the head coach, returned phone messages seeking comment Tuesday night.
This shouldn't affect Wormley or his playing status at all, since he's a Toledo local who's played at Whitmer for his whole high school career, while the investigation is focused on players who have joined the team since last season. Still a situation worth keeping an eye on, however, as Whitmer has started to produce a lot of Division I talent in recent years.
September 7th, 2011 at 1:43 PM ^
September 7th, 2011 at 1:44 PM ^
Sounds like East Grand Rapids
September 7th, 2011 at 1:49 PM ^
I met a guy who drove his kids 1.5 hours one way to go to school at EGR so they could play sports there. It's ridiculous.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:32 PM ^
Or East Kentwood hockey in their hayday.
September 7th, 2011 at 1:51 PM ^
manball.
September 7th, 2011 at 1:51 PM ^
Hey Ace -- do you think we could get the functionality of the "Tom" tab on the MGoBoard to be an "Ace" tab? Makes it easier to find your latest comments...
September 7th, 2011 at 2:22 PM ^
Once I get up to speed and start posting enough content, I think that will be switched over. Give us some time -- all these changes happened right before football season, so there's a whole lot of stuff happening on top of a major transition.
September 7th, 2011 at 1:52 PM ^
Palka spoke at the coaching clinic in the spring and spoke about having to try and extablish a rapor with the younger kids because the two catholic schools that they compete with were taking so many quality kids when they reached high school. I wonder how many of those transfers were just kids from those two catholic schools they play not being happy about losing kids to a rival.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:20 PM ^
in case you'd like to know.
September 7th, 2011 at 1:57 PM ^
For those who are curious, the OHSAA transfer eligibility rules are essentially written as "If you transfer into a school, you are ineligible for one year." They then list about 14 exceptions to this rule. Relevant exceptions include:
If your parents move from one school district to another, you can go to any school and play immediately.
You can transfer one time from a private school to the public school in your district and play immediately. The reverse is not true.
The investigators will have to determine if changes of residence are legitimate. Change of parental custody does not count, so if you move from your mom's house to your dad's house, you still have to sit a year. I think the same may be true if you move to live with a different family member; the rule is that the parent or guardian actually has to move. Other problems I have seen include parents getting an apartment for themselves and their kids in a different district and calling that their "home address" even though they don't really live there, and the OHSAA does not like that.
Unfortunately for Whitmer, the OHSAA (in my experience) sometimes makes sure that if they spend resources on an investigation, they fine the school to pay for it, sometimes regardless of the facts of the case.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:23 PM ^
There are some top-notch academic school districts in the Chicago area and I know they are VERY vigilant about ensuring you actually live in the district. I have a colleague who bought a house into which they intended to move. This house is in the more highly-regarded district. The massive renovation is up to about 2 years now and only now approaching final completion, but in order for his kids to attend the new school, they actually had to sleep in the unfinished house all last school year. In fact, the district would have random checks to ensure the house was actually being lived in. Although they owned the house, they had to actually be IN the house to be eligible for the district.
It's amazing the lengths to which some people will go to game the system (not referring to my colleague) and the lengths to which the districts will to go enforce their rules.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:03 PM ^
Yet another reason that the state of Ohio sucks.
Schools in Michigan would NEVER allow shady practices like that.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:07 PM ^
Sounds like they typical High School drama. The whole, "This school keeps beating us and keeps getting kids to want to play there therefore they HAVE to be cheating" mentality is just funny really. Guarantee this was perpuated by a rival school on this. Even if found innocent whoever brought this complaint up will never realize that these kids actually wanted to go to school and play fotball there.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:28 PM ^
Have they every heard of Oak Park High School or Inkster High School ? Just askin.
While the OHSAA is looking into that, perhaps they should look into the unusually high number of kids who repeat 8th grade.
September 7th, 2011 at 4:23 PM ^
That's what they're under investigation for? How about scheduling back-to-back games against Canadian prep teams -- that's the questionable practice I'm wondering about.
September 7th, 2011 at 5:11 PM ^
That's as bad as scheduling teams from Michigan. Well, it's pretty much the same thing.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:45 PM ^
Ace I think TomVH is out there scooping you right now - get to work.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:46 PM ^
Ace I think TomVH is out there scooping you right now - get to work.
September 7th, 2011 at 5:36 PM ^
Cheat all the time even if it's just little things that give you a boost over the competition. I remember east st. louis, which is a top program in the state of illinois, had to forfeit in the playoffs last year because their star player was found to be ineligible because crossing state lines was a violation of his parole.
September 7th, 2011 at 7:34 PM ^
Here is an update with the school's side of the story.
Interesting Bits: "The Ohio High School Athletic Association is investigating the legitimacy of at least five transfers into the football program" and "The Washington Local School District has accepted more than 3,000 transfer students over the past three years."
http://www.toledoblade.com/HighSchool/2011/09/07/Whitmer-football-denie…