Patriots appeal decision they can't be in playoffs

While the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) continued Wednesday to leave the door open that additional evidence could sway its stance, a written report by deputy commissioner Que Tucker says Freedom High’s football team is ineligible for the playoffs.

The Patriots (9-1), who close the regular season at Patton (0-9) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, are ruled out of the playoffs after having five players ejected for fighting in last Friday’s 55-13 home victory over Chase.

By NCHSAA rules, a team that has three or more players ejected for fighting – or six ejected for any reason in a season – forfeits its playoff privileges.

Tucker emailed her report to Freedom principal Dr. Ken Prichard, athletic director Joey Davis and head football coach Mike Helms soon after writing it on Wednesday around 2 p.m.

Prichard and Davis each said they were driving to Chapel Hill on Thursday and expected to arrive by 9 a.m. to appeal the decision to the NCHSAA Board of Directors.

“An appeal letter has been sent to see if we can get them to re-examine the situation,” Prichard said. “Essentially, we got a document from Ms. Tucker that spells out various consequences, not just the playoff ineligibility.

“There’s also a fine and instructions for the players involved, which I believe is pretty standard for this type of supposed violation.”

Prichard said he would provide The Morganton News Herald a copy of the NCHSAA report after the appeals hearing.

“We will return (Thursday) with a final decision,” Prichard said.

Davis said in addition to the postseason ban, the state’s report noted Freedom would be fined $1,000 and placed on one year of probation. He said the probation simply means the NCHSAA would watch the program more closely in the next 12 months.

“As long as we keep doing what we’ve done for 36 years before last week, we’ll be fine,” Davis said.

Davis and Prichard each said the school is looking for anyone who has video that shows what happened, since the team’s game film cut off midway through the incident.

“I keep hearing ‘So and so has tape,’” Prichard said. “At whatever point tape is produced, I hope to take it with me (Thursday).”

“A parent brought in video (Wednesday),” Davis said. “But when things escalated, everyone in front of her stood up, so you can’t see anything.”

Tucker told The News Herald in a phone interview more than three Patriots moved onto the field during what was deemed by the officials a fight.

“It’s important to note, we’re not talking about the actions of three individuals (the ones who left the bench) affecting the whole team,” Tucker said. “One of Friday’s officials wrote down the first three names he could as players started leaving the bench area. That’s what we train our officials to do, to take note of players as they leave the bench.

“After he wrote down the first three, there were so many players on the field that he could not keep up and he stopped recording numbers.

“That’s what was shared to us by the head referee at the game, that there were too many (players on the field) to even get them all.”

Five Freedom players and two Chase players were ejected in the third quarter of last Friday’s game.

Helms said the officials’ game report he saw indicated just two Patriots ejections for fighting. He said the remaining three were for players leaving the bench.

Tucker said leaving the bench during a fight is the same as fighting, according to NCHSAA rules. She agreed video sent to the NCHSAA by Freedom cuts off mid-fight and said it showed no reason to question the game officials’ decisions. Chase did not provide video.

 “We did receive a DVD from Dr. Prichard, but the video did not contain the entire incident,” Tucker said. “I think there was a punch, a tackle, a flag goes up, then what appears to be a blip in the film and it went right to the next play.

“As a result, we were not in a position to overturn the officials’ ruling. However, if additional information comes to us that might cause us to re-think the ruling, we will certainly examine it.

“Void of such evidence, we must stick with the officials’ decision to eject the five players for fighting. The individuals who left the bench were ejected for what falls under the heading of fighting as laid out in our handbook.”

Since the state football playoff brackets are released Saturday, Freedom likely has only Thursday and Friday to produce evidence that would clear any of the five players ejected.

Tucker said no rigid deadline is in place, but the NCHSAA would need video very soon.

“We hope if there is such evidence that would show a player was misidentified in the officials’ report, that it would surface soon,” she said. “If there is video, we need it ASAP. It would need to come in pretty soon, by (Thursday) or Friday at the very latest.

“If we see something that appears borderline, we have officials come in to review the video and give them an opportunity to change their call if they deem necessary.

“But we cannot be in the business of overruling their calls since we were not present at the game.

“It’s their job to call the game as dictated by the rules. And we feel in this case, they did their job.”