SLC has to forfeit district games

Guess you missed the 5-5A News post from April 2nd -

It sounds like Coach Hughes was unaware of the fact that he was ineligible. Is this true? What kind of a contribution did the ineligible player name? Don't care about names. Just stats, out of curiosity. Its a good team. Shame to see them go down like this.

It didn't hurt them other than the one district forfiet. Glad to see they caught it early, and yes, they are a very talented team.

It's too bad for SLC. In a nutshell, from what I understand, the rule states that if a player transfers into a district and lives with his parents, the player is eligible immediately. If the player transfers into a district and lives with anyone other than their parents (including a legal guardian), the player does not become eligible for one year. This was the case at SLC.

ALL transfers must be approved by each district's DEC. In MOST cases, when a student moves (transfers) and lives with their parents they are eligible. If the DEC finds that they moved for "athletic purposes" then the DEC can rule them ineligible.

We had a kid last year that moved from Mexico and lived with his uncle. This kid would have been an impact player for us as a catcher and a hitter. We tried to get a waiver for him while he played JV. The waiver never happened and when we informed the kid that he'd have to play JV, he moved back to Mexico. Coach has to be aware of the rules, it is his responsiblity whether that is fair or not. I know where all my baseball players live and make sure every year that they reside in our attendance zone. I won't speak for CISD, but in my district, if this were to happen to me, I'd be fired. I just hope they'd let me finish the season. Plus the UiL would most likely hand down some sort of sanction on me as well.

Coach Hughes is a great coach and knows his stuff. That is why this is so surprising to me. I bet there is more here than we know.

While I understand it's the coaches responsibility to know the rules and abide by them, I don't think there was any intent by Coach Hughes to circumnavigate them on purpose. From what I understand the kid in question is a good player but was in the lineup as the DH. There are plenty of kids available at SLC that could fill that spot.

Do others feel a coach should be dismissed for a violation of this type? In this case, I certainly don't.

No, Coach Hughes isn't going anywhere. He's a winner and a good coach.

I hope that I am not coming across as thinking that he should be fired. Everyone is capable of making a mistake.

What I am saying is that in my district that I coach in, if I were to play an ineligible player and had to forfeit games, I would be fired. Our AD has made that very, very clear to all coaches in this district.

Coach Hughes does a great job at SLC and is well respected in the HS coaching community.

funneldrill...I appreciate your point of view. Being a coach, you're much more familiar with situations like this than most of us would ever be. I didn't take your comments as "bashing" Coach Hughes as much as communicating some of the many "non baseball" details for which a high school coach is responsible.

doubleday,

Thanks, and I love the picture of Rodney Dangerfield (oh, but it looks good on you!?!?!) from Caddyshack!

There are lots of things that we as coaches have to consider and take care of behind the scenes. I know that some of the things that I do leave my parents scratching their heads. Sometimes, I let them know what I was thinking, sometimes I don't. Our AD does a great job of "educating" coaches in our district. I have learned alot from her in the past 2 years.

In my experiences I have seen coaches play ineligible players knowingly, and not knowingly. Every situation is different and unique. Luckily for Coach Hughes and those kids, they caught it before more district games were lost and they can still achieve most if not all the goals that their team set for this year.

FD... Now if you could just get the AD to allow netting instead of those 10 inch poles us parents have to look around. lol

quote:

Originally posted by Maverick0714:
FD... Now if you could just get the AD to allow netting instead of those 10 inch poles us parents have to look around. lol

That is definitely funny rite chair!!! Yeah, that will happen as soon as we win 4 straight baseball state championships!!!