By Jason Avery
News-Times Staff
EL DORADO - A breakdown in communication can cause a major problem.
Parkers Chapel found that out first hand this week when the Arkansas Activities Association made it public that the Trojans’ football team had to forfeit a win for using an ineligible player.
The game the Trojans forfeited was their 28-14 conference win at Woodlawn, giving them an overall record of 3-7 and an 0-6 conference record, according to the AAA.
“We became aware after the fact with one of our athletes that there was an issue with his residency,” said Parkers Chapel Superintendent Michael White. “Once we determined what that was, we investigated it and found out that caused that person to be ineligible. Then we notified the AAA and turned ourselves in. The consequences of that was the forfeiture.”
White said it was an innocent mistake.
“We get transfers out here quite a bit,” White said. “Sometimes they get lost in the shuffle, and the coaches fail to make the connecting points. In this case, his residency kind of slipped through the cracks. Of course, the student probably at the time was unaware of what the guidelines were and what they could and couldn’t do.
“It wasn’t until we came across it at the end of the season and going through our normal routine of checking things out for the next season eligibility-wise that we realized that this student actually was ineligible because of residency. That’s when we backtracked, caught ourselves and contacted the AAA. We learned a lesson.”
White added that the school is taking measures to make sure the mistake will not be repeated.
“We are putting some things in place that will help us not to do that again,” White said. “It’s more of doing a better job with the protocols that we should be doing, and making sure the communications take place from the registrar’s office to the principal’s office to the coaches, and make sure everyone knows what’s going on. It’s just a better job of communicating. Right now, we have a clean slate and a lesson learned on monitoring our residencies.”
White also confirmed that James Housdan will be stepping aside as the head football coach and athletic director.
White said that Housdan will be an assistant principal.
“We’re going through a restructuring,” White said. “I’m moving some personnel around, and part of that restructure is that I’m moving him to an administrative position, so we have the high school head football coach position posted.”
White said there has been plenty of interest in the position.
“I’m going through the applicants trying to narrow them down,” White said. “I’ve got over 30 applications right now, and it’s been posted for a little over a week, so we’ve gotten plenty of responses. I’m trying to filter them down and determine who we’ll interview.”
White said he doesn’t have a specific timeline on getting a new coach in place.
“The sooner the better, but no specific timeline,” White said.