news-record.com

Editor's Note: This article incorrectly indicated that Guilford County Schools superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green named specific school employees at Northern High officials who should have known that two basketball players were ineligible. Green did not name the employees.

GREENSBORO — Two months after Northern Guilford made history as the first school to win a state basketball title without a senior on its roster, the school earned another, less noble distinction Wednesday when it became the first Guilford County school to be stripped of a state championship.

The N.C. High School Athletic Association saw to that, vacating the Nighthawks of their 3-A title a day after Guilford County Schools determined the Nighthawks used two players who should not have been attending the school.

Hours after the Nighthawks lost their title, they lost their head coach, too. School Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green told basketball coach Stan Kowalewski his contract would not be renewed.

Kowalewski criticized the investigation, calling it “flawed from start to finish.” He described schools attorney Jill Wilson, the leader of the six-monthlong investigation, as “obviously an amateur.”

He said school system officials will have to face the wrath of Northern parents, particularly those whose boys played on the basketball team.

“This is not about me; this is about the kids,” he said. “I can assure you (the parents) will rise up and stand for their kids. This is not over.”

It’s not. Green said that the Northern investigation remains open and that other teams — including the football program — are being looked into for ineligible players. Green and Wilson said other Guilford County schools are being investigated, based on findings and accusations that have come out of the Northern probe.

School system officials said Wednesday that five Northern students playing on four athletics teams were determined ineligible based on the state athletics association’s domicile rule. Green said those students will be allowed to finish the school year at Northern but will be sent back to their correct school in the fall. Those students will be ineligible to participate in athletics next year, an indication school officials believe they tried to deceive Northern officials on their residency.

Some of the students ruled ineligible played in more than one sport at Northern, Green said. In addition to the two basketball players, investigators found that:

• The baseball team played with one ineligible player. The team, which was preparing to play in this week’s first round of the state playoffs, forfeited all its game and was removed from the playoffs. Western Alamance, a wild card team, took Northern’s place in the playoffs. Northeast Guilford, which was out of the playoffs Wednesday morning, became a wild card team Wednesday night.
• The wrestling team used two ineligible wrestlers. Both have forfeited their matches. Officials are still determining if the team must forfeit overall matches in which those players won.
• The junior varsity softball team played an ineligible student and must forfeit all its games.
• A JV cheerleader was also found to be ineligible. Cheerleading is not a sanctioned sport.

The high school association also fined Northern $1,250, or $250 for each infraction. The school must also return more than $7,800 in playoff revenue.

Green declined to name the athletes, citing privacy issues. He said the basketball team lost its state title because school system officials believed the ineligible players should have been caught.

Northern principal Joe Yeager and Athletics Director Derrell Force resigned from Northern on April 10 — the same day school system officials announced they were looking into the eligibility issues.

Wilson said she found “red flags” immediately after looking at some students’ records.

“Those flags should have come up just as quickly” with school officials, she said.

Vacating a state championship is rare in North Carolina. The last time it happened was in 1995, when Cary High lost its state basketball title for using an ineligible player. Que Tucker, deputy executive director of the high school athletics association, said Wednesday she looked at “every angle, every possibility” before making the decision.

Northern defeated Gastonia’s Forestview for the state title on March 14. Tucker said no team would be recognized as the 3-A state champion.

Green said coaches and parents need to be better educated on the system’s residency policy. He hopes to have public meetings to address that issue.

“It’s a sad day for Northern and Guilford County,” Green said. “But we’re going to learn from this and we’re going to get things right.”

Flanked by Wilson and Guilford County Athletics Director Leigh Hebbard at Wednesday’s news conference, Green declined to discuss why Kowalewski’s contract would not be renewed. Green said the status of other coaches is being reviewed.

Kowalewski said Green told him Wednesday the school had found no wrongdoing on Kowalewski’s part. He said Green wanted “a fresh start” to the program.

Kowalewski said Wednesday night he would not recommend his players ever play basketball within Guilford County as long as Green was superintendent, but he reserved most of his anger for Wilson. He accused her of trying to find fault where there was none to justify the cost of the investigation. Wilson and Green said they didn’t know the cost.

Wilson, Kowalewski said, “is obviously an amateur and that her underlings wanted to treat rumor as fact throughout the investigation.”

“In recent days the techniques that (Wilson) used were absolutely despicable, trying to frame me to look like I’ve done something wrong,” he said.

School officials stressed that the findings released Wednesday dealt with eligibility issues related to where students said they lived. Green declined to discuss allegations of academic abuse or recruiting — issues sources have said the school system was looking into. He said investigators were still examining those issues.

School system officials also released more than 1,200 pages of e-mails — conveniently packaged in a box — between Northern officials that were requested by the News & Record and WFMY-2 last year in response to a lawsuit filed by Kowalewski against Northwest Athletics Director John Hughes. Sources have said those e-mails could show Northern coaches were involved in recruiting athletes, a violation of local and NCHSAA rules.

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