It's official Flat Rock Middle

School's football team is not in the playoffs.

A special meeting of the Metro

Middle School Athletic League was held Tuesday night at Luella Middle

School in Henry County, and Flat Rock's request to overturn a previous

ruling on the tiebreaker used to determine the playoff seedings was rejected,

leaving Rising Starr and Fayette Middle as the two representatives from

the county in the playoffs.

In the wake of the controversy

that this issue has caused, Superintendent John DeCotis said Thursday

morning that the entire middle school athletic situation is being looked

at. "At this time, we're evaluating our status with the league,"

he said.

The school system has no jurisdiction

over the league, and DeCotis said that all schools in the league agreed

to abide by its rules and leadership.

Parents of Flat Rock players

asked DeCotis to consider not letting any Fayette schools participate

in the playoffs if a satisfactory outcome was not reached, but he said

that was not appropriate in this case.

"It would have affected

four other schools, including Henry County schools, and four other set

of parents and students," said DeCotis, who added that he consulted

with the school system's legal counsel during his own decision-making

process.

DeCotis held a meeting Tuesday

morning with principals of the three schools as well as MMSAL Commissioner

Jason Byars, an administrator at Whitewater Middle. DeCotis said he asked

Byars if a meeting could be held, and Byars agreed to attempt to organize

one.

DeCotis said he also asked

Byars to allow Ray Swann, the spokesperson for the Flat Rock parents,

to make the same presentation he made to the superintendent at a conference

Monday afternoon, after Flat Rock's appeal was voted down last Friday.

Swann told The Citizen that

he went to the meeting Tuesday night, as did several other parents, and

they were met by a law enforcement officer who told them no parents would

be allowed in the meeting except for Swann.

Once the meeting began, according

to Swann, Byars said a vote would be required to even allow him to remain

in attendance. This was done while he waited outside. Swann said that

a Flat Rock representative came out a few minutes later and informed him

that the board had voted not to let him back in.

Several calls to Whitewater

for a comment from Byars were not returned.

The controversy began when

all three Fayette schools finished their region schedule with 3-1 records.

Rising Starr and Flat Rock were 5-1 overall, while Fayette Middle came

in at 3-3.

The other two games on the

teams' schedules were not counted in the region standings to determine

playoff structure, and they were also not considered as "common league

opponents" under the second tiebreaker method outlined in the league

bylaws.

Fayette Middle made the playoffs

ahead of Flat Rock by virtue of a coin toss. Flat Rock parents contend

that it never should have come to that.

Swann said that while his group

has accepted the team's absence from the playoffs this season, the issue

is not dead and the parents are considering what, if any, action should

be taken.

Meanwhile, Fayette Middle lost

in the opening round of the playoffs Wednesday, 18-15 to Henry County,

while Rising Starr was scheduled to face Eagle's Landing Thursday.

For more background on this

story, see the story in Wednesday's edition of The Citizen or on our Web

site at www.thecitizennews.com .

Back

to News Home Page |