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The eligibility of several Ellender Memorial High School athletes is being challenged by the LHSAA after a rival school told the governing body that boundary rules are maybe not being obeyed throughout the parish.
Several coaches and administrators at multiple schools have alerted The Times over the past several days of an LHSAA investigation involving five Patriots athletes, including one student-athlete who was a member of the Lady Patriots’ Class 4A Girls’ Basketball State Championship team last spring.
A spokeswoman with the LHSAA’s media department told The Times this morning that the organization would not confirm nor deny an investigation was taking place, citing the privacy of the students at both schools.
But officials at both Ellender and South Terrebonne High School confirmed to The Times this afternoon an investigation was taking place and is in its final stages.
An official with South Terrebonne told The Times that the school’s athletic department alerted the LHSAA of what it believed to be violations pertaining to five Ellender student-athletes who the school believes are living inside the Gators’ boundary lines, but are still going to Ellender.
The source said it is not likely that any coach, teacher or administrator at Ellender was arranging for this to happen. The source said he believes the students got bad advice in middle school as part of a problem that has been going on “for years.”
“Somewhere along the line, someone came up with this idea that if you go to Oaklawn Middle School, you can choose whether you go to South Terrebonne or Ellender, regardless of where you live,” the source said. “But that’s simply not the case. That’s not how the rule reads at all.”
The Times attempted to call Ellender principal Blaise Pellegrin, but he was out on Wednesday as part of a principal’s conference.
The Times did reach Ellender head football coach and co-athletic director Dave McCormick and he confirmed the investigation was taking place and said that the LHSAA has ruled the five players ineligible as part of their initial findings.
But McCormick said he believes the preliminary investigation was done too quickly and the school has filed an appeal which he believes will clear up the issues altogether.
McCormick said the ruling is expected to be made “in the next couple of days.”
“Everything is there,” McCormick said. “We have all the paperwork, and I think it’s all going to get settled.”
McCormick also confirmed that one of the players in question was a contributing member to the team’s 2016-17 girls’ basketball state championship team.
When asked what would happen to the school’s state championship if the ruling is upheld, McCormick said he didn’t believe any punishment would be given because he believes the player in question was living in Ellender’s area the whole time.
The LHSAA has set precedent in years past of forcing teams to forfeit victories – or even titles – if it’s discovered that an ineligible player competed in an athletic contest.
This past year, Southern Lab had to forfeit a football championship.
McCormick said he doesn’t believe anything like that will happen with Ellender.
“It shouldn’t have even come to this,” McCormick said.
Terrebonne Parish Schools Superintendent Philip Martin contacted The Times this afternoon and said he’d heard “whispers” regarding the eligibility issue at both schools, but added he didn’t know much in the way of details.
Martin said he thought the incident involved just one student and was a little surprised when learning that five student-athletes in total were in question.
The superintendent said in the coming days, he will gather more information about the case, “just out of curiosity.”
He added that Terrebonne’s policy for dealing with the LHSAA is concrete. Martin said he urges schools to self-report any potential issues to start an investigation – as a way of being cautious.
From there, Martin said, the school system leaves the rest for the LHSAA to determine.
“The advice I always give the principals is if something comes up, self report it and let the association decide,” Martin said. “If they say everything is OK, then that’s great. If they say something is wrong, then that’s something we will have to deal with when that time comes.”
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