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 .

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