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By Jed Blackwell
Sports Editor
The Boiling Springs High School football team will miss all scheduled jamborees and will not be allowed to participate in the 4A playoffs this season due to rules violations resulting from playing an 8th grader in contact drills during spring practice.
The South Carolina High School League’s Executive Committee voted 12-0 last week to restore eligibility of all the players who participated in the practice, but to leave all other penalties in place.
League director Jerome Singleton had orignially declared all players who participated in the drills ineligible, as per the SCHSL Constitution.
The Bulldogs used a rising 9th-grade quarterback in some drills and briefly in the squad’s spring scrimmage. When the infraction was brought to the attention of District Two officials, head coach Bruce Clark reported the violation to the League office himself, and the school put into place several self-imposed penalties, including the voluntary loss of at least one jamboree.
“We’re excited that we’ve got the eligibility back for our students, and that they’re going to be able to get out there and play football,” said Boiling Springs principal Chuck Gordon. “But in terms of the other sanctions, we’re absolutely disappointed. The kids have done no harm, and I’m surprised that the High School League ruled in that fashion.”
Gordon said he had hoped the Bulldogs’ self-imposed sanctions would sway the committee to punish the Bulldogs with pre-season penalties only, as has been done with other teams with similar infractions in the past.
“We did come in with self-sanctions,” he said. “Obviously, they didn’t agree with those because they decided to do something different, and again I’m disappointed in that.”
Clark was devastated at the Committee’s decision.
“I couldn’t be any more disappointed,” he said. “The beauty of it is that we get to play football. We get to play 11 games.”
Clark again took full responsibility for the infraction.
“Like I’ve said from the very beginning, this is my fault,” he said. “I have to accept blame for it.”
Clark said he would not allow the decision to affect his team’s preparation for the season.
“You go win game one,” he said. “That’s what we wanted to do anyway. We’ll turn our attention to game one, and we’ll try to go win. What else can you do?”
Clark said he felt for the players in the program.
“I hate when kids get punished for what adults did,” he said.
Gordon said he looked for the players to make the best of a bad situation.
“Where there’s darkness, there’s always a ray of light that you can find,” Gordon said. “Knowing our kids at Boiling Springs High School, they’re going to find a ray of light, they’re going to come out, and they’re going to make something positive happen as a result of this.”
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