The list of football forfeitures continues to grow.
The latest team to fall Monday was Florida district
champion Boyd
Anderson (Lauderdale Lakes, FL), which was forced to vacate its first six
victories this season - and a state playoff berth - due to the use of three
ineligible players.
The Miami
Herald reported that Boyd Anderson (8-1, 5-0 otherwise) had
deployed three players during its first seven contests that
had used false addresses in attempting to maintain eligibility; the players
were held out of the team's last two games. The team thus dropped to 2-7, 2-3, giving
way to Northeast
(Oakland Park, FL) to claim the District 14-7A championship.
Northeast will face Royal
Palm Beach in a Florida High School Athletic Association Region 4-7A quarterfinal
game next week. Blanche
Ely also gains a FHSAA playoff berth by virtue of finishing second to
Northeast in the district following the Boyd Anderson forfeits.
To Boyd Anderson's credit, the violations were self-reported.
An internal investigation at the school uncovered the use of the false
addresses. The school then sent its findings to the FHSAA.
“(Boyd Anderson Principal Angel Almanzar) was very
pro-active in making sure something like this won’t happen again at the
school,” FHSAA executive director Roger Dearing told the newspaper.
“I know it hurts the
students now to have to go through this, but by doing this he creates a level
of sportsmanship that will help to prevent something like this from happening
in the future.”
Dearing said that Boyd Anderson would be placed on two-year
administrative probation. Because the
incident was self-reported, the fines will be less than they might have been
otherwise.
In addition to the Northeast-Royal Palm Beach game next
weekend, Blanche Ely will face Palm
Beach Gardens Dwyer.
“It’s not the way we’d necessarily want to get into the
playoffs, but we’ll take it,” Blanche Ely coach Rodney Gray told the Herald.
“I feel for Coach Blair
(Boyd Anderson coach Wayne Blair) and his kids, but we’re happy to have an
opportunity to play again and keep trying for our goal of winning a state
championship.”
Most recently, top-ranked Clay-Chalkville
(Pinson, Ala.) was bounced from the AHSAA 6A tournament due to the use of ineligible players. In central New York, otherwise undefeated Skaneateles
(N.Y.) was forced out of the NYSPHSAA Section 3 playoffs in the semifinal
round due to self-reported recruiting violations.
Jim Stout is the CBS MaxPreps Media Manager for the Eastern U.S. He may be reached at 845-367-2864 or at jim.stout@cbsinteractive.com.
