The Stoneham (Mass.) High School boys basketball team has forfeited seven wins after one of its players was determined to be ineligible under Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) rules. The MIAA released the following statement to New England Basketball Journal on Tuesday: “The MIAA recently was notified by Stoneham High School of a self-reported violation...
The Stoneham (Mass.) High School boys basketball team has forfeited seven wins after one of its players was determined to be ineligible under Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) rules.
The MIAA released the following statement to New England Basketball Journal on Tuesday:
“The MIAA recently was notified by Stoneham High School of a self-reported violation of Rule 59 (Student Eligibility: Time Allowed for Participation After First Entering Grade Nine).
"Per MIAA Rule 86: Participation of an Ineligible Student, the violating member school must forfeit every competition in which the ineligible student competed.”
Stoneham Athletic Director David Pignone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to a report from Boston 25 News on Monday, Stoneham school officials became aware of a potential violation last Thursday, when they opened an investigation and learned that one of the players was ineligible.
Stoneham started the season 7-0 with the ineligible player on the team. After self-reporting the violation, Stoneham forfeited each of those seven wins into 10-0 losses, which is now reflected on Arbiter, the website the MIAA uses for official records. Stoneham, now 0-8 this season, dropped to 68th in the MIAA Division 3 power rankings that were updated on Tuesday morning.
The ineligible player is no longer on the team, according to the Boston 25 News report.
On Friday, according to the report, Pignone sent a message to each of the seven teams Stoneham had played against with the ineligible player. It read, in part:
“I am writing to inform you of an unfortunate situation that involves Stoneham High School using an ineligible player in our boys basketball game vs your team. Please know that we were not aware of this at the time of our game. As soon as we became aware of this we acted immediately and removed the athlete from the team and contacted the MIAA.”
Stoneham superintendent Dave Ljungberg said the school is reviewing how the ineligible player was allowed to play.
“We are sorry that our basketball team has been placed in this situation, but we are confident that our remaining players will continue to represent us at the highest level of competition and sportsmanship,” Ljungberg said in a statement to Boston 25 News.
Editor's note: The MIAA originally told New England Basketball Journal that Stoneham also violated Rule 57. The group later clarified that there was no violation of Rule 57.
