HS Basketball Player Ruled Ineligible After Team USA Mistakenly Gives Her Check
“Rules are rules” and “actions have consequences” are two of the most fundamental underpinnings of a lawful and ordered society.
But “no harm, no foul” and “it was an honest mistake, you made it right, and it won’t happen again” are the principles that mark the difference between justice and power-trip authoritarianism.
And if anyone in any walk of life is more guilty than some busybody government apparatchik of power-tripping, you’d be hard pressed to turn up evidence to back up that belief.
All of the above was on display in Dothan, Alabama, last month, where, according to the Dothan Eagle, high school basketball player and Rutgers commit Maori Davenport found herself stripped of her eligibility by the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s “amateur rule.”
At issue was a check from USA Basketball, intended to compensate Davenport and her family for expenses incurred in the course of a trip to Mexico City in August for the FIBA U18 Americas tournament.
Davenport’s family initially deposited the check, but when they found out that would violate the amateur rule, they paid the money back in full to USA Basketball, leaving everything square and hoping to invoke that previously mentioned no-harm, no-foul doctrine.
AHSAA director Steve Savarese saw otherwise, however, and he suspended Davenport on Nov. 30, also forcing Charles Henderson High School, which she attends, to forfeit four wins from this season in which she played.
The high school appealed the ruling up to the District 2 board, but the four members of said board agreed with the decision and upheld the suspension.
Maori Davenport should be playing high school basketball right now https://t.co/pUOP5kGrNG pic.twitter.com/tG29uWbktd
— Dothan Eagle (@dothaneagle) December 23, 2018
They reportedly deliberated for only 20-30 minutes, and you have to wonder whether they gave serious consideration to the appeal.
Brock Kelley, principal of Charles Henderson High, gave a statement after the ruling came down.
“This was not the ruling we had hoped for or expected,” he said. “We had hoped and prayed that it would go the other way, but obviously it didn’t.
“This situation is very difficult for everyone involved. The AHSAA felt a rule had been violated and the Central Board of Control has an obligation to uphold all rules and bylaws despite compelling and undisputed mitigating factors.
“Whether I agree or disagree with their decision on Maori, as a member school of the AHSAA, I have no choice but to respect the board’s decision.”
Savarese, meanwhile, offered up a statement of his own.
“I want to thank Charles Henderson High School for its heart-felt presentation made to the Central Board,” Savarese said in an AHSAA release. “I also want to commend the Central Board for its commitment to upholding the AHSAA member-school bylaws in sometimes very difficult situations.”
In other words, “Thanks for not making me look like an overweening petty tyrant.”
Charles Henderson girls basketball coach Dyneshia Jones, however, was in far less of a mood for diplomacy.
“Maori is an outstanding player, a great role model for our school and a great student-athlete,” Jones said, according to the Dothan Eagle. “It is not just about basketball, but in other areas too. She is a top-notch player who has represented the United States in all types of tournaments.
“It was a mistake and when (Davenport’s family) found out about it, they paid it back. And (the AHSAA) won’t look past the gray line, not one bit, so I am upset at that ruling.”
In the grand scheme of things, all this means is that Davenport will miss a few high school games before she goes on to college; Rutgers seems unlikely to rescind a scholarship of an incoming athlete who, after all, was good enough to play in an international tournament.
But it’s also a prime example of how any statements made by people like Savarese of having anyone’s best interests in mind ring as hollow as a snare drum.
There’s a fine line between order and injustice; last month in Alabama, that line may very well have been crossed.
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