In January, Myers Park Principal Robert Folk was given information from a parent that led him to question some enrollment and eligibility criteria on the varsity football team. It was also his first month on the job as principal. He turned his findings over to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, who ruled the team must forfeit all of its games from last season, return $6,700 in playoff revenue and pay a $250 fine.
While the school hasn't gone into great detail over the findings, the association's commissioner, Que Tucker, says there were yellow flags the school should have been looking at closer back in the spring. And she gave some insight into how extensive the problem was.
Sarah Delia: What we're trying to understand is just — with what happened at Myers Park, with these fraudulent documents that made it look like students lived somewhere that they actually didn't — how prevalent is that happening throughout the state? I mean, surely Myers Park can't be the only school that's experiencing that?
Que Tucker: Well, no, we don't always hear about it because it's handled locally. It probably pops up once or twice a year, but not nearly as often as others — you know, as some people might think that it occurs. In this situation, it popped up because there were several students who came in from out of state.
Delia: OK. And you mentioned several students kind of popped up on the radar. Can you confirm how many football players were in question?
Tucker: Well, there were, you know, several. Let's just leave it at several, because I think that throughout the investigation, there were more than just the ones that they shared with us, for us to review the documents. So that as I understand it, in my conversation with the principal, Mr. Folk, they were looking at a number of athletes because — and this, some of this dates back to when those students enrolled last spring, and then they continued on to play even into the fall. Then there were some who enrolled in August, as we understand it. So there wasn't just one or two, there were several. And I would just like to leave it at that.
Delia: And I just want to make sure — I know you said that you wanted to leave it at several students that, you know, were ineligible. Is several more than three?
Tucker: Well, yeah, it probably... I would say that yes, probably more than three. Yes.
Delia: So Myers Park faces a $250 fine, they're going to have to return the $6,700 from playoff revenue, and the biggest penalty — their last football season is going to be forfeited. How did you all come to that conclusion that that was the right call?
Tucker: When you are trying to determine eligibility, you do that on the front end. And it is incumbent upon every member school, as they are determining the eligibility of their students, to use all available information, to ask all of the necessary questions, to explore or investigate any red flags, any yellow flags that they might have that would cause them to determine that a student is not eligible or might not be eligible. You need to do that on the front end. And so as we examined the materials, as I listened to their explanation, it became apparent to me that there were some things that should have been yellow flags last August, and perhaps even back as early as last spring. There should have been some yellow flags, but we couldn't mess with or touch last spring because we have a statute of limitations, which is September 1. So anything that maybe went awry last spring really was not the focal point. It's just unfortunate that some of those students from last spring also continue to play this year, and so they were caught up in some of the discussion.
Delia: And when you talk about some yellow flags, can you give me examples of what some of those yellow flags would be?
Tucker: Well, yellow flags, when you're looking at residence, could be — and I won't say that emphatically "this is exactly what happened," — but when you're trying to determine whether or not the residence is as the people tell you, then who enrolls the students? Because there were students who came in from out of state. Were these the parents? Were these the legal custodians? Did someone else enroll those students? The addresses that they put down, as it relates to their former school, or where did you live previously? When you write that down and there is a reference to maybe another state — that's a yellow flag. If the student wasn't enrolled in your school last semester or last year, that's a yellow flag, even if the student lives in North Carolina. But let's say a student comes over from Cabarrus County. When you ask, "What was your previous school?" if they put down a school in Cabarrus County, but you are now at a school in CMS, well, that's a yellow flag right away. That student was somewhere else last semester, so how is that student eligible here?
Delia: Commissioner Tucker points out had Principal Folk not self-reported, the school would be facing a higher fine.
