IHSA Announcements

February 25, 2000

Chicago (Providence-St. Mel) Forfeits Tournament Win

Chicago (Providence-St.Mel) was removed from the Class A Boys State Basketball Tournament series Friday (Feb. 25) for using an ineligible player, and the championship game of the Chicago (St. Benedict) Regional has been postponed until Monday.

IHSA Executive Director Dave Fry Friday ruled that a transfer student has been participating this season while ineligible. The student transfered from Chicago (DeLaSalle) to Providence-St. Mel. The school was found to be in noncompliance with By-law 3.041. Providence-St. Mel was required to forfeit the regional win and must forfeit any other games in which the ineligible student participated this season.

Providence-St. Mel beat Chicago (Francis Parker) Wednesday (Feb. 23) in the regional semifinals and was scheduled to play Chicago (The Latin School) in the regional championship game Friday night. The ineligible player participated in Wednesday's game. Francis Parker will meet Latin for the regional title Monday.

An appeal of the Executive Director's ruling has been scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Monday during the regular meeting of the IHSA Board of Directors at the IHSA Office.

The return of Francis Parker into the tournament is IHSA standard operating procedure in a team sport state series. The Providence-St. Mel vs. Francis Parker game was the first in the tournament for Providence-St. Mel. In circumstances identical to this, the team receiving the forfeit advances.