Salesian (Richmond, Calif.) standout sophomore and transfer
Jabari Bird was ruled ineligible by the North Coast Section Friday for pre-enrollment contact with another player.
Jabari Bird (blocking shot) was
having stellar sophomore season.
File photo by David Steutel
Besides losing Bird for the rest of the season, Salesian is required to forfeit all 16 of its wins prior to Friday's 74-37 win at Piedmont. The Pride is now officially 1-17, though appeals are pending.
Bird, a 6-foot-5 wing and the team's leading scorer and rebounder, was in street clothes for the game and will travel with the team to a Southern California tournament today when the Pride faces 2009 CIF Division II champion Rialto-Eisenhower.
Salesian and the Bird family will appeal the NCS decision, head coach Bill Mellis said by phone late Friday night.
Mellis said there was simply a paperwork error and that the Bird or the Pride should not be penalized. NCS commissioner Gil Lemmon confirmed the ruling to the Contra Costa Times.
Bird, who averages 17.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, transferred from Benicia after his freshman season when he averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
Salesian won its first 16 games of the season before a 57-54 Bay Shore Athletic League loss to St. Joseph Notre Dame-Alameda on Wednesday. Bird had 13 points and 11 rebounds in that game.
Mellis said the first he heard of any paperwork problems was Thursday.
Salesian is the No. 10 team in California, according to MaxPreps.com and won the CIF State Division IV championship. The program has a squeaky clean image and has lost more players to transfers than gained, including two key members of the state-title team Jabari Brown (now at Oakland) and Kendall Andrews (Newark Memorial).
Bird was just featured by
MaxPreps.com on Monday. The title of the story read "Bird ready to soar."
He's now been grounded indefinitely and he's taking it all very hard.
"It's just kind of shocking," Mellis said. "We didn't feel like we did anything wrong. All the paperwork we felt we did in good faith and some of the paperwork is simply misleading. Right now it's just out of our hands."
According to Mellis, the issue deals with a paperwork question regarding having contact "with someone in the athletic department (at Salesian)."
"The family wrote ‘no,' because they thought that it meant a coach or administrator," Mellis said.
But Bird played AAU basketball player with current Salesian teammate Mario Dunn, a fact not disclosed in the paperwork. "Had any of us (Salesian must sign off on all of the Birds' paperwork) thought they meant other players or classmates they would have included it," Mellis said. "They weren't trying to be evasive. To us, (we all) offered full disclosure.
"It's a very fine line and I imagine if this holds up it could open a huge can of worms and other cases."
Salesian and the Birds will appeal to the California Interscholastic Federation office in Sacramento, where all appeals are heard. If overturned, then Bird could be reinstated this season, Mellis believes.
The Salesian coach also thinks that Lemmon can also overturn forfeit losses if he considers Birds influence on the game indecisive. In other words, blowout wins could awarded back to the Pride, which won eight games on the court by 25 or more.
Bird played in all 17 games the Pride has played prior to Friday.
"The timetable on that right now for all the appeals is up in the air," Mellis said. "We’ll do the best we can."
Salesian left from the Bay Area by van immediately after Friday night's game to take the six-hour drive to Southern California.
"It's been a rough 24 hours for sure," Mellis said. "But we're hopeful all will get sorted out."
