Marshall County reclaims state golf title

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association has reversed their previous decision and again awarded the state golf title to Marshall County.

The Marshals were stripped of the title when it was discovered that a transfer had played on a high school team in Florida.  Apparently, Marshall County didn't file the necessary paperwork with the KHSAA before the season, which resulted in their penalty.

At a hearing Wednesday, the KHSAA called the issue "unique" and gave Marshall County the state championship back.  However, the school was fined $5,000, placed on two years' probation, and will not be allowed to open their season until after Aug. 10.

HERE IS A COPY OF THE KHSAA PRESS RELEASE (pdf)

I'm not sure how the Marshall County situation is "unique" when compared to other schools who haven't submitted paperwork.  Trigg County got stung by the paperwork issue a couple of years ago when Lexi Estes transferred to Trigg from Marshall County.  Then TCHS athletic director Taylor Sparks said he could not locate the paperwork to file with the KHSAA when Estes decided to move back to Marshall County.  Marshall County could not find the original paperwork, which would have helped Trigg County.  As a result, Trigg had to forfeit two basketball games Estes played in that season before her move back to Marshall County.

Again, I'm not sure of the "unique" circumstances that come into play here. 

Comments

[Justin McGill]

I figure SportsBytes readers can't get any better information on this situation than from a Trigg Countian transplanted to Marshall County, so here's how this whole thing looked from my point of view.

In May, a junior golfer transfered from a school in Florida to MCHS. This golfer did not compete in any school sports as a sophomore, simply because his previous school did not offer any sports. He played at another school his freshman year, and that team won the Florida golf championship in its class that season, but KHSAA rules state a transfer is eligible if he/she didn't play at the sending school the season before the transfer, so there's where the appeal came in. And there was absolutely no question that his transfer was legitimate - his mother was from here and moved home a year earlier with her daughter, and the son joined them this year.

There was considerable confusion and miscommunication between the school and KHSAA concerning the paperwork in question - were they supposed to send in the form or not? On the form itself, the school is directed NOT to send it to KHSAA if the student meets the transfer requirements, which was the case in this instance. Face to face, at least one administrator was told by a KHSAA official that everything was in order for this student - so says the administrator, at least.

In the end, MCHS administrators had to take the fall for some of this, and that's how it all shook out after the appeal. It's how it should have happened in the first place - none of those student-athletes did anything wrong, and to punish them for what amounted to an administrative error (and it was a borderline error, in my opinion) was simply wrong.

That's my take.
JUSTIN MCGILL