LYNN — The reason St. Mary’s was stripped of its home game in the upcoming Division 3 state tournament goes back to a court case in December involving one of its players who was denied a waiver after transferring to the school from Peabody High.
Even though St. Mary’s (17-3) is the top seed in Division 3, it’ll play the one game that would have been on its home court Thursday at either Lynn Tech or Newburyport. Because St. Mary’s drew a first-round bye, its first game is a quarterfinal. Once the tournament hits the semifinals, games are in neutral gyms.
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association has a policy that states that teams who have gone to court to force their way into the tournament are automatically seeded last. St. Mary’s received that news from the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Council (MIAC).
Though the Spartans did not go to court to to petition for eligibility, last December, after the MIAC denied waivers to two Peabody boys who had transferred to St. Mary’s, one of the boy’s parents filed for an injunction to prohibit the state from barring their son from playing. A judge in Lawrence Superior Court sided with the parents, and the boy, Chibuikem Onwuogu, was allowed to play.
The MIAA rules state that any student with varsity experience who transfers to another school must sit out a year before being eligible to compete. The two schools involved in the transfer can agree between themselves to waive the rule and allow the student to play. If no agreement is reached, a waiver request must be filed with the state. In this case, the MIAC denied both students waivers, which was the last step in the appeal process.
The MIAC ruled two weeks ago that the Spartans would seeded last in Division 3, regardless of where they were ranked. St. Mary’s appealed that ruling, and Wednesday the MIAC came down with a compromise. St. Mary’s would retain its ranking, but be forced to play all its games on the road.