Player participating in playoffs declared ineligible?

I will begin by saying I was contacted by someone close to the situation who knows, so I am 100% certain that he was told exactly this.  Whether or not the person from the town of this team who told him was 100% correct is not certain.  

So, SUPPOSEDLY, one of the players on the team that eliminated us from the playoffs had a starting offensive guard declared ineligible by the IHSA before yesterday's quarterfinal games due to a residency issue.  The story I heard was that the IHSA was not going to require the team to forfeit any games because he was determined to have not had a big enough impact, and because the school/team was unaware of the situation.  This has raised several questions for me.

Full disclosure:  1-They beat us this year and while I don't think they are unbeatable, substituting one of their offensive guards would not have made a difference in our contest, in my opinion (my d coordinator may disagree).  2- I actually knew of this situation earlier, but it was told to me so early in the season that I had forgotten it completely until yesterday.

The questions it raises for me:

1- Should I be raising a stink about this IF it is true?    It would do my team no good at this point, but we played by the rules.  If what I heard is true, this team, technically, did not.  I see a quote like this from their coach in the paper last year: "'Our goal is to be conference champs and then to be state champs is the big goal. We’ve done it three times on the field, I don’t care what the IHSA says, we won' (the IHSA ruled they used three
ineligible players in 2013 and it had to forfeit its Week 2 win over [their rivals])" and again, IF it is true, I have an issue with it.  (Further full disclosure:  I have no idea what happened in 2013 and whether the IHSA's ruling was justified or not, but the idea that this might not be the first time bothers me).

2- If I had remembered this issue prior to our game, should I have brought it up to the IHSA?  Most of me says no.  The optics of that would be so bad.  It would look like we were trying to win victories off the field because we were afraid of the contest on the field.  Also, the way I heard of this issue would require me pissing off someone who told me about the situation at a time when neither of us could have had an inkling it would affect my team.  On the flip side, would I have been guilty of not doing everything possible to help my team, even if it was distasteful to do?

3- Should I have brought it up to the IHSA as soon as I heard?   I don't think I should have.  I hear, as I imagine many coaches do, a lot of rumors throughout the course of a season.  I have always operated under the idea that I worry about my own team and ignore anything that does not affect us.  At the time, there was no way of knowing it would affect us, so why worry about a rumor about one of hundreds of high school teams?

I am interested in opinions from anyone willing to share, especially from those with head coaching experience, on these questions.  I am not trying to bad mouth this team, they just happened to be the team involved.  Again, SUPPOSEDLY.  I have yet to see any verification of this anywhere in print.

My current plan on question 1 is to do nothing beyond writing this post.

If it was East St.  Louis their season would be over.

I think I would need more information before answering any of the questions. With all due respect, it sounds like a lot of rumors and innuendo.

For example, is it common for the IHSA to rule a player to be ineligible but to then allow to stand the results of the games in which he participated? I was under the assumption that games in which a team allowed an ineligble player to participate would be forfeited. Is that not the case?

Is the player still playing for this team?

My understanding is he did not play in the quarters because he found out prior to the game he was ineligible.  I also thought that was the IHSA's policy.

I get how it sounds.  The point of my post sure is not to call out any school, just curious as to how other coaches would handle things in the situations I was in.

Huck wrote:
So, SUPPOSEDLY, one of the players on the team that eliminated us from the playoffs had a starting offensive guard declared ineligible by the IHSA before yesterday's quarterfinal games due to a residency issue.  The story I heard was that the IHSA was not going to require the team to forfeit any games because he was determined to have not had a big enough impact, and because the school/team was unaware of the situation.  This has raised several questions for me.

regardless of the impact he had on the game, if the kid was ineligible and played, then a forfeit should have been granted. I do understand there are a lot of moving parts here. which team that lost then advances? how do they prepare for a game when they thought their season was over? etc

Someone on Edgy's board identified the team as Rochester and said his source was the kid's father in a thread on the same subject. Seems to have the same information I have, though my source was different. I was starting to wonder if anything was ever going to be said about it, as I knew my source was solid.

I don't know how they aren't being made to forfeit.

Huck wrote:Someone on Edgy's board identified the team as Rochester and said his source was the kid's father in a thread on the same subject.  Seems to have the same information I have, though my source was different.  I was starting to wonder if anything was ever going to be said about it, as I knew my source was solid.

I don't know how they aren't being made to forfeit.

If they are made to forfeit, you more than likely would end up cancelling the entire Class' playoffs ala the 1995 Class AA Dual Team Wrestling Tournament. I would imagine the IHSA is just hoping that McNamara does their dirty work for them this weekend.

This has been known to some folks well before the football season. The kid lives on the West side of Springfield and played football for Springfield High and switched to Rochester without moving to the Rochester District.  I think Rochester gets more attention because they win so much and I'm told that there are other area players doing the same thing at other public schools. I'm hearing that Rochester self reported this and wasn't aware of the kids residence. Just my opinion but I can't see Derek knowingly playing a kid illegally and the kid wasn't a major impact guy.
The residency rule is a complete joke in D186, especially in basketball. Grant Middle school has won recent State Championships in basketball and is located in Springfield High's District. Most of their best players play for Southeast or Lanphier, who year in and year out are the best teams in Springfield.

OSUBucks wrote: I think Rochester gets more attention because they win so much.

This.

I can assure you that all of us have coached a game where an ineligible player played for us.

Lanphier's and Grant's boundaries overlap. About half of Lanphier's area is also Grant's.

It's not just a residency rule. My son went to Grant and now goes to SE. There are programs available different schools and there is also the desegregation order to deal with.

Here in Springfield, but YMMV.

awm wrote:Lanphier's and Grant's boundaries overlap. About half of Lanphier's area is also Grant's.

It's not just a residency rule. My son went to Grant and now goes to SE. There are programs available different schools and there is also the desegregation order to deal with.

Here in Springfield, but YMMV.

Interesting, thanks for the info.

awm wrote:Lanphier's and Grant's boundaries overlap. About half of Lanphier's area is also Grant's.

It's not just a residency rule. My son went to Grant and now goes to SE. There are programs available different schools and there is also the desegregation order to deal with.

Here in Springfield, but YMMV.

Average white male? Is that you? When did you come back to Turks place?

Nice to see you here.

OSUBucks wrote: Grant Middle school has won recent State Championships in basketball .

and they won the 7aa boy's state track meet last year. i heard they have a pretty good track coach.

net wrote:

OSUBucks wrote: Grant Middle school has won recent State Championships in basketball .

and they won the 7aa boy's state track meet last year. i heard they have a pretty good track coach.

That they do and he knows a thing or two about football too.

net wrote:

OSUBucks wrote: Grant Middle school has won recent State Championships in basketball .

and they won the 7aa boy's state track meet last year. i heard they have a pretty good track coach.

I heard he listens to vietnamese polka 8 tracks.

Teetime wrote:

Average white male? Is that you? When did you come back to Turks place?

Nice to see you here.

Oh, I've been lurking for some time. I'm trying to keep my post rate lower than BWs.

OSUBucks wrote:

net wrote:

OSUBucks wrote: Grant Middle school has won recent State Championships in basketball .

and they won the 7aa boy's state track meet last year. i heard they have a pretty good track coach.

That they do and he knows a thing or two about football too.

When did Coach Peter start coaching football?

it was steph w.

Welcome home awm! Even if you're lurking... good to see ya alive and well.