MHSAA News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 9, 2009
Contact: John Johnson or Andy Frushour
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com

Melvindale Academy for Business & Technology
Vacates Class C Boys Basketball Championship

EAST LANSING, Mich. –April 9 – The Melvindale Academy for Business and Technology today vacated its championship in the 2009 Michigan High School Athletic Association Class C Boys Basketball Tournament after it was confirmed that the school had used an ineligible student-athlete.

In addition to vacating its tournament results, the school will also be forfeiting regular season contests in which the ineligible student had participated.

“While forfeitures are a tough part of life in high school sports during the regular season, they are especially difficult matters when they involve vacating tournament championships. While we feel disappointment for Melvindale Academy for Business and Technology, the school handled this situation well. Some of life’s toughest lessons come from following the rules, but it is in these situations that you learn integrity and respect for the process are far greater prizes than those recorded on the scoreboard,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA.

The MHSAA Handbook does not provide for teams which have been defeated by a school using an ineligible player to advance in the tournament while it is in progress or to advance to a tournament place vacated by a school after its conclusion.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,600 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.

-0-

Farm Bureau Insurance and MEEMIC Insurance are year-round MHSAA Corporate Partners