The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission has asked the state Supreme Court of Appeals for “expedited relief†in stopping the enforcement of a Wood County judge’s injunction that has thrown the state football playoffs into turmoil.
Injunctions in Wood and Cabell counties called for the change in the playoff points calculation structure.
Victories against teams that moved down a class were rewarded with playoff points accordingly, instead of the points they might have gained if schools remained in the class in which they were placed in the December 2023 reclassification.
In two motions filed Thursday, the SSAC explained why it thinks Wood County Circuit Judge John Beane’s order is wrong and should be quickly stopped.
The playoffs were postponed on Tuesday due to the ongoing litigation.
“We have filed with the Supreme Court. We are now waiting on a decision on how to proceed with our football playoffs,†WVSSAC Associate Executive Director Wayne Ryan said.
In response to a request from the Wood County Board of Education, Beane ruled Saturday that the SSAC had to revert to its scoring formula set up last December. The “final†playoff rankings were released Saturday.
The SSAC said this order is “inconsistent†with a Mason County judge’s later order requiring two play-in games in Class AAA: Point Pleasant-St. Albans and Hampshire-Capital, and a postponement of one week before the AAA playoffs.
Those games are scheduled for Saturday, as the Big Blacks and Red Dragons will play at Hurricane High School, while Hampshire and Capital will play at Bridgeport. Both games are scheduled to be played at 1 p.m.
A Supreme Court ruling before then could make those games void.
Mason County Circuit Judge Anita Ashley called for the play-in games after an injunction filed by Point Pleasant Junior/Senior High School.
Another ‘chance to play’
“This time last year, I was sitting at home thinking I’d never get to coach again,†Capital coach Jon Carpenter. “To get the chance to play another game is a plus for me. Any time you get your blessings and opportunity to play makes everything else not matter. Our kids are excited just to get to play a football game.
“Now, the flip side to that is, if the Supreme Court ruling comes back tomorrow [canceling the games]. If everything goes back to normal, how do you go about dealing with that and telling your kids? It’s the unknown.â€
St. Albans, like Capital and the other two schools, is preparing as if it is playing this weekend, until told otherwise.
“Being the optimistic coach I am, it was great,†Red Dragons coach Derek Stotts said about knowing about the possibility of playing. “We get another opportunity to get better. We get another opportunity for our young guys to get some experience. We get another opportunity for our seniors to strap the pads on one more time. We’re going to take advantage of every opportunity we get.â€
Carpenter, along with other West Virginia football coaches, dealt with the color-coded COVID-19 infection rates map in 2020. That gave him experience in dealing with the unknown.
“You don’t worry about it,†Carpenter said. “I preach to them all the time as a guy that’s interested in the process, not the results. All we can control is what we can control. Tomorrow, we got to go practice. We’re lucky enough to wake up Saturday. Whatever comes Monday comes, you know? I would be doing them a disservice if I taught them to read the Internet or worry about all the stuff they cannot control.â€
“We do it the same way we went about it all year. You control what you can control,†Stotts said. “If you can’t control it, you do your best. We don’t cry about the schedule because we couldn’t control it. We control what we can control.â€
‘Impossible to comply’
In Thursday’s filings, the SSAC said the orders from Mason and Wood counties are “inconsistent with each other, rendering it impossible for WVSSAC to comply with both orders.â€
The SSAC also argued that the Wood County Circuit Court does not have jurisdiction in this matter under current legal precedent. Beane’s order said SSAC rules are subject to challenge in this instance.
The SSAC also argued that Wood County Schools could have and did not appeal their August classifications, waiting until the “11th hour of the 11th (and final) week of the 2024 football season†for their challenge.
Beane’s order said that the athletic director at Parkersburg High School did make an administrative complaint in October “with no relief.â€
The SSAC said Beane’s order has created a “significant number of issues that have no equitable solution, including inserting four teams into the playoffs that would otherwise not be seeded and removing four teams that were seeded.â€
Additionally, Wood County’s schools were not left out of the postseason based on August’s classifications, the SSAC said. Parkersburg South and Williamstown kept their rankings after the reshuffling Saturday. Parkersburg moved up three places.
While the petition only deals with the Wood County order, the SSAC said it plans to file a petition about the Mason County order “imminently.â€
Recalculating the ratings
Twenty-two schools were moved down a class in August, which was granted by the WVSSAC Board of Review.
The final playoff rankings came out Saturday after playoff points resulting from more than 100 games had to be revised due to the Wood County injunction being heard early Saturday afternoon.
The final rankings showed four new teams enter the final 16 with a combined record of 13-27 (Capital, St. Albans, St. Marys and Lincoln).
The four left that were replaced were Hampshire, Westside, Point Pleasant and Tolsia. They have a combined 22-17 record.
Even as some public sentiment has questioned why the Cougars, at 3-7, have been moved into the playoffs, Carpenter said such factors don’t faze him.
“I don’t think a whole lot about it,†Carpenter said. “The worst part about all this for me is the film we exchanged last week with Nitro. Then, all the experts saying a 3-7 [team] shouldn’t be in the playoffs. Now, I understand why Nitro and Herbert Hoover don’t answer the phone when we call to schedule a game. I know why Point Pleasant doesn’t call us back.
“That’s hard to swallow. We’re going to play a tough schedule. I get why they don’t answer the phone now, because we’re two different things football-wise. When you let people sneak their way in and battling all those games against nobody, it creates problems like this.â€
Judge restores Spring Mills wins
On Thursday, Berkeley County Circuit Court Judge Debra McLaughlin ruled against the SSAC’s decision to void four football victories by Spring Mills because the eligibility of a player in question, identified as “T.G.,†was qualified for protections under federal law. MetroNews was the first to report the judge’s ruling.
The WVSSAC informed Spring Mills on Nov. 4 it had to forfeit four varsity games it had won due to an ineligible player.
The ineligible player listed as “T.G.†is Treshawn Garmon, 18. The school claimed Garmon enrolled as a student through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which protects the educational rights of a child who might be homeless. That includes the right to participate in extracurricular activities.
Spring Mills went from finishing its regular season 5-5 to 9-1.
Garmon played in four games for the Cardinals. He moved to West Virginia in July and had been staying with people around the Spring Mills area.
Garmon was arrested, however, in October on a fugitive warrant from Lee County, Georgia, where he faced charges of sexual assault of a child.
