Rocky Boy forfeits nine wins

The first nine wins of the 2014-15 boys basketball season won’t be able to count for the Rocky Boy Stars. Void St. Pierre, the superintendent of Rocky Boy schools, told the Havre Daily News Friday that the Rocky Boy high school boys basketball team will have to forfeit all nine wins it has earned due to the participation of an ineligible player.

St. Pierre made the following statement in a press release sent to the Havre Daily News Friday morning.

“During an internal review of students participating in our boys basketball program, Rocky Boy High School's athletic department discovered an eligibility violation of Article ll, Section 8 [Semester Rule] of the Montana High School Association By-Laws. Rocky Boy High School immediately self-reported its unintentional violation and is in a position to accept the penalties outlined in Article Vlll, Section (1) [Participation of an Ineligible Student] within the MHSA By-Laws. The appropriate and necessary contacts have been made to all schools affected by this eligibility violation and steps implemented to correct our win-loss record. As a long-standing member of the MHSA, Rocky Boy High School works diligently to ensure that all of its extracurricular programs are implemented, governed, and strictly follow the established By-laws of the MHSA,” St. Pierre said.

Article II Section 8 of the MHSA handbook reads as follows: “A student will be eligible to participate in Association Contests for four (4) consecutive years [eight (8) consecutive semesters] after entering the ninth grade. Enrollment of twenty (20) pupil instruction days during a ninth grader’s first semester in high school constitutes his/her first semester of attendance. A ninth grader who is enrolled fewer than twenty (20) pupil instruction days in his/her first semester of high school does not begin his/her eight (8) consecutive semesters unless he/she has participated during this time in an Association contest. Such a period of fewer than twenty (20) pupil instruction days is not considered to be “the last previous semester attended” under Section (2).”

The punishment imposed on Rocky Boy stems from Article VIII Section 1 which states the following: “The Board shall impose the following: In all team sports (e.g. basketball, football, soccer, softball, volleyball) forfeiture of the contest in which the ineligible student or students participated and disqualification of ineligible student or students for a period not to exceed one semester (90 school days) from the date he/she last participated while ineligible.”

Coming into the weekend, the Stars were 9-5 overall and 5-2 in District 1B play. But with the forfeiture of all previous wins, Rocky Boy’s record stood at 0-14 overall and 0-7 in the 1B. However, the penalty which falls under the guidelines of Article VIII Section (1) does not disqualify the Stars from playing out the remainder of their schedule or participating in postseason play. Rocky Boy beat Malta and lost to Choteau this past weekend.

Rocky Boy visits Havre for both boys and girls games this Saturday night.