MSHSAA investigates eligibility of players during Vashon's title run

ST. LOUIS -- Five basketball championships won by Vashon High School in St. Louis are being scrutinized by the Missouri State High School Activities Association.

The association is delving into the eligibility of at least 15 Vashon players from 1998 to 2007. Questions have been raised about whether players lived within the school's boundaries or were improperly recruited, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday.

The team won five championships during those years, under coach Floyd Irons. A lawyer for Irons, Rick Sindel, said school administrators and not Irons were responsible for checking student addresses.

Association leaders were to meet with high school and district administrators Tuesday. The executive director of the state association, Kerwin Urhahn, pointed out that no decision has been made. But if the association's board found enough evidence to back the allegations, Vashon could be asked to forfeit some or all of its recent championships, won in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006.

Several school leaders in Missouri have asked the association to look into the matter. "Everybody's supposed to play by the same rules," said Daryl Rinne, principal of Kearney High School, located north of Kansas City, Mo. The school lost the state championship to Vashon in 2004.

Vashon's principal Barbara Sharp was hired after the 2006 championship. Penalizing the school and its present administration "cannot and should not be an option in this matter," she wrote about a year ago in a response to an inquiry from the association.

Irons, 60, won more than 800 games and 10 of the school's 11 state championships over 33 years. He retired from the city's public schools last year.

Irons came under scrutiny in early 2006 after an internal audit revealed Vashon administrators had, without authorization, spent tens of thousands of dollars in basketball receipts on, among other items, a $50,000 scoreboard, about $100,000 for new uniforms and $5,900 on a gymnasium floor.

He pleaded guilty in September to mail and wire fraud in a real estate scheme. Federal prosecutors, following a Post-Dispatch investigation, said Irons was involved in a scheme meant to kick back thousands of dollars to Irons and a partner. He faces up to 33 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

As part of a plea agreement, Irons was required to tell the association everything he knew about any alleged recruiting violations.

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Information from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com