Transfer violations disqualifies high school from state tournament

Tucker High’s girls basketball team will not be playing in today’s Class 6A quarterfinal game, as ruled yesterday by the Georgia High School Association. The team was found guilty of the GHSA’s recruiting and undue influence rules in securing players, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A representative for GHSA stated the following on the disqualification:

‘’Based on information gathered during a recent investigation, GHSA Executive Director Dr. James R. Hines has found Tucker High School to be in violation of GHSA by-law 1.70 concerning Recruiting and Undue Influence. As a result, the Tucker girls basketball team is ruled to have been playing several ineligible players this season and, therefore, must vacate their position in the ongoing state basketball tournament.’’

The 21-9 team, who is the Region 4 runner-up and ranked No. 8 overall in the class, was set to play Harrison after advancing in the playoffs by defeating Grovetown and Bradwell. This, of course, came before Tucker was found guilty after an 11-day investigation.

Now, Grovetown and Bradwell will be allowed to play a makeup second-round game on Wednesday and the winner will face Harrison on Thursday. The GHSA announced that Saturday’s semifinals at West Georgia will go on as scheduled.

‘’I have mixed emotions,’’ Harrison coach Steve Lenahan said in a release. “I’m a little disheartened at the fact that these allegations are true and did violate the rules, but at the same time, I’m happy that the GHSA caught it and dealt with it promptly. That typically doesn’t happen.”

Not only does this violation shake up this week’s regional competitions but it is also believed to be the first time that GHSA has disqualified a basketball team during the state tournament.

Six of Tucker’s players transferred prior to this season and three of them are the team’s leading scorers. Those players being questioned about their transfer are Jasani Buchanan (from Stephenson), Kerrigan Johnson (from Redan), Summer Dilwood (from Grayson), Devyn Lockhart (from Banneker), Kayla Blaise (from Dunwoody) and Amia Johnson (from Peachtree Ridge).

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the majority of these transfer players have played on Georgia Pistols AAU team that is coached by Robert Standard, the father of Tucker player Amiriah Stanard, who was on the Tucker team last season.