MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Lake Norman High School’s boys basketball team has forfeited their 27-1 season due to an eligibility issue with one of their players, erasing their chances of winning the state championship.
The team, which was favored to win the state championship, had recently won a playoff game against Hopewell High School with a score of 85-63 before the eligibility issue came to light.
Sports law attorney Mike Ingersoll explained, “There are 19 specific categories of infractions that are just automatic forfeiture.”
The eligibility issue was discovered during the transition to spring sports, and it was not related to age or residency violations.
The school’s former athletic director, Jay Keener, has been reassigned to another job within the district. In a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, Keener stated that he performed his job with integrity and tried his best to uphold that standard.
Additional eligibility violations have been detected in some of Lake Norman High School’s spring sports teams.
“It’s a heartbreaker, I mean those kids play their hearts out,” said Eric Wakeland, whose daughter is a student at Lake Norman High School.
Wakeland criticized the handling of the situation, stating, “It all starts at the top, they should have caught this, they should have figured this out, and they should have fixed it.”
The forfeit has left many in the community questioning how an eligibility issue with one player could impact an entire team’s season, highlighting the importance of adherence to athletic regulations.
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