Bell City to investigate eligibility allegations regarding boys basketball team

Bell City school officials will investigate allegations that some current and former members of the high school boys basketball team didn't meet Missouri State High School Activities Association eligibility rules.

Bell City superintendent Rhonda Niemczyk said MSHSAA executive director Kerwin Urhahn contacted her about the complaint filed by the Naylor School District.

"They asked that we conduct our own internal investigation," Niemczyk said.

The complaint was filed with MSHSAA last week. But Niemczyk said her office received a copy of the complaint by mail only Monday.

Niemczyk said she hasn't reviewed the allegations in detail yet. "Just at first glance, looking at them, I think they are unwarranted," she said.

Reached at his Columbia, Mo., office, Urhahn refused to discuss the complaint or any investigative actions his office might take.

The complaint follows a decision late last month by the association's board of directors to punish Naylor, a small school district near the Arkansas state line, for alleged eligibility violations involving the girls basketball and softball teams. The board ordered Naylor to forfeit all its high school girls basketball and softball games played last year, including its girls basketball district championship. The Naylor girls basketball team also is barred from playing in the post-season district basketball tournament this spring.

Naylor officials contend the association has punished them while failing to address similar issues regarding Bell City School District student athletes.

The dispute in the Naylor case is far from over. Naylor filed a lawsuit in Ripley County last February to block MSHSAA from taking action against the district.

"They were acting arbitrarily and capriciously and requiring us to break federal law," Naylor superintendent Stephen Cookson said.

At issue is whether the federal privacy law prevents the school district from disclosing students addresses to MSHSAA without parents' consent.

Parents of the students in question had refused to give their consent. Cookson said the school district has the necessary student address forms to prove its case, but legally can't disclose them to the association.

Naylor officials and the district's attorney, Paul Kidwell of Poplar Bluff, Mo., argue that the association isn't an educational institution and, as such, isn't entitled to that information without parental consent.

Circuit Judge Mark Richardson issued a temporary restraining order Jan. 27 against MSHSAA, which then went to court seeking a change of judge. Judge John Beaton of Kennett, Mo., was appointed to hear the case.

MSHSAA then petitioned the Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District in Springfield, Mo., to intervene.

The association asked the appeals court to prohibit the trial court from proceeding with the case while legal matters were being appealed. The appeals court issued that prohibition March 8 of last year, court documents show.

Cookson and Kidwell said that ruling allowed the association, which governs high school sports in Missouri, to take action against Naylor even while legal issues remain tied up in court.

Cookson said Tuesday he hopes the appeals court will rule soon. School officials want the opportunity to have a circuit judge issue an order that would allow Naylor to play in the post-season basketball tournament this spring.

"While the judges are sitting on this, we are getting hammered," he said.

MSHSAA, in a Jan. 25 news release, said eligibility violations involved five students who participated in basketball or softball games during the 2005-2006 school year.

Cookson said one of the students was academically ineligible for only a single contest. Another girl played in a couple of softball games and moved back to Arkansas within a month of enrolling at Naylor, he said. The other three currently are enrolled in the school and the district has evidence to show they live in the district, he said.

MSHSAA said last month that its investigation showed violations regarding residence, change of residence, transfer and certification of student eligibility.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123