The 2008-09 girls basketball season officially starts on Monday -- and already four girls in the Public League have been ruled ineligible.
Welcome to the season, everybody.
On Friday, before the first game is even played, Calvin Davis, director of sports administration for the Public League, ruled that Carmen Sillers, (Washington to Julian), Raquel Townsend (Washington to Julian), Iesha Collins (Washington to Bogan) and LaParis Newsom (Washington to Bogan) will be inelgible for the entire season.
Now, these four girls and their coaches/parents/athletic directors can appeal the ruling.
In the case of the two girls at Bogan, that is exactly what will happen.
The four were ruled ineligible because, according to Davis, they left Washington for another school for athletic reasons. You can't do that.
Bogan coach Gary Bell said late Friday night that he is aware of the ineligible players, but that Collins would have been on the sophomore team and Newsom would have seen some playing time on varsity. Bell said there would appeal the rulings early next week.
Over at Washington, where these four girls came from, there are only nine girls left in the program and there is no frosh/soph team, said assistant coach Bryan Jones. Justin Frierson is the new coach, replacing Gerald Ewing whom Jones said left Washington for "family reasons."