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GREENSBORO — A Guilford County Schools official said Tuesday night that investigators want to resolve the probe into athlete eligibility at Northern Guilford as quickly as possible, but she added there's no certainty that will happen.

Nora Carr, chief of staff for school superintendent Maurice "Mo" Green, said the investigation, which began last fall and picked up in earnest after the News & Record last month examined the influx of transfers to the boys basketball team, will be more thorough than swift.

"We want a resolution on this matter," said Carr. "We know it's been hard on (Northern's) students and staff, but we're taking this very carefully step by step to make sure we're doing everything by the book."

Carr's comments are the first by school administrators in two weeks. And while she shed little light on an investigation that now has the rapt attention of high school fans across the state, she indicated progress was being made.

"We're looking into a lot of different issues," Carr said. "When you peel off one layer of an onion, it takes you in one direction. When you peel off another layer, it takes us somewhere else. We're still peeling away at that onion."

Sources familiar with the investigation say schools officials are focusing on football, baseball and boys basketball.

Investigators have met with the head coaches of those three sports — football's Johnny Roscoe, baseball's Johnny Smith and basketball's Stan Kowalewski — as well as assistant coaches, the parents of some students and landlords renting homes to some of those parents, sources said.

Sources said Tuesday that many of the coaches and parents interviewed by school system officials have taken lawyers to their meetings, slowing down an already tedious process. The sources have requested anonymity because the investigation remains open.

Meanwhile, school officials were unwilling to share anything on Guilford County's second high school probe: Page's use of an ineligible player during the 2008 football season.

Five days after the N.C. High School Athletic Association acknowledged that the Pirates had turned themselves in, school system and Page officials were not talking. Guilford County Schools athletics director Leigh Hebbard and Page athletics director Rusty Lee did not return phone calls Tuesday.

Page principal Marilyn Foley said the school was waiting to hear the state athletic association's final resolution on the incident before commenting.

Que Tucker, the deputy executive director of the NCHSAA in Chapel Hill, said that a letter was mailed to Page and Guilford schools officials last week. Tucker said she would not comment further until local officials acknowledged the infraction.

Tucker would not identify the student involved, but Patricia Hughes said last week the student was her son, Gabe King, who transferred to Northern Guilford last week.

Hughes said last week, her family was living in Winston-Salem during the football season while Gabe was living with his sister during the fall. Hughes said her son was living with an assistant coach, Norman Weeks, during the summer.

Sources within Page's football team refuted that Tuesday, saying King spent one weekend at Weeks' home. Hughes and Weeks declined to comment.

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com