CHS football penalized by TSSAA
Clinton High School football will be less one week of summer practice and short two scrimmages this year.
The reason?
The Dragons coaching staff allowed a student currently enrolled at Anderson County High School to participate in a scrimmage against Maryville on April 13.
Though the student did move into the Clinton zone he remained enrolled at ACHS. Under TSSAA rules that disqualified him to participate in football at Clinton during this school year.
CHS Athletic Director Brad Collette said he self-reported the incident as soon as he became aware of what happened.
“The student put in papers that he is coming to Clinton High School next year. When Coach [Randy] McKamey received those papers from the student he thought he was enrolled here. At that point he thought the student was good to practice,” Collette said.
“This is on us — myself and the coaching staff for not catching it. We bear the responsibility, he said.
Collette noted he made several recommendations to TSSAA as to how Clinton would be penalized.
“They [TSSAA] took some of the recommendations that I proposed but not all,” he said.
Because the student in question violated TSSAA recruiting rules by participating in football at Clinton while enrolled elsewhere, he has been ruled ineligible for one school year.
Collette said he plans to appeal the punishment to the student in question. The appeal will take place in June.
“A kid should not be punished for mistakes made by adults,” he said.
Bernard Childress, Executive Director of TSSAA, noted in a letter to Collette that the matter is closed and no further action is being taken against the football program.
“We want to commend the Clinton administration in the manner in which this situation was handled. Thank you for self-reporting the violation. We know that you will take the necessary steps to ensure a violation of this type does not occur again,” the letter read.