FRANKLIN — The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association announced on Friday that all Bishop Fenwick sports are ineligible to participate in MIAA postseason tournaments for the upcoming 2023-24 school year.
According to the MIAA, the one-year postseason ban is due to Bishop Fenwick’s failure to comply with Rule 87.6.
Rule 87 refers to waiver eligibility for individual students athletes.
Rule 87.6 specifically refers to accountability. According to the MIAA handbook, rules 87.6.1 to 87.6.4 read: “Waiver approvals can be withdrawn at any time if new or misinformation is brought to light. The school may be entitled to a new hearing.
The MIAA Board of Directors has the jurisdiction to require the following: The Principal must conduct an investigation and report the findings, in writing back to the MIAA Board of Directors.
The Principal and school personnel may be required to attend a hearing with the MIAA Board of Directors.
Sanctions will be determined by the MIAA and may include: The suspension of school personnel from attendance at MIAA tournaments.”
In a press release detailing the ban, the MIAA did not provide any specifics about which sport violated the waiver eligibility rules.
This unprecedented ban is unlike anything levied by the MIAA in recent years.
According to a letter sent to students, faculty and staff by Bishop Fenwick’s Board of Trustees, the ban followed an evaluation of the school’s request for a 5th year participation waiver for a student-athlete.
“Because of three honest and acknowledged errors in the 5th-year waiver application for one player in one sport for one season, the MIAA is punishing all student-athletes of Bishop Fenwick for all sports in all seasons for an entire year,” says the letter. “The MIAA has rationalized this unprecedented sanction on the mistaken belief that we were intentionally not fully transparent in our supporting documentation for the waiver and therefore violated the rule on accountability. This accusation is false.”
The letter would go on to say that, “For the record, Bishop Fenwick fully complied with the denial of the waiver application; the student-athlete never touched the field.”
According to that letter, the school has hired an attorney and despite previous attempts to handle the situation without media attention, the MIAA released the press release on Friday announcing the ban. According to the Fenwick letter, the school is “in dialogue with the MIAA, through our attorney, and we are working with the MIAA to find a path to a better outcome.”
The initial reaction to the one-year postseason ban has been overwhelmingly in favor of Fenwick.
In an MIAA tweet which included their full press release on the matter, the most liked response came from Melrose Weekly New sports editor Jen Gentile who said, “Punish the specific coaches and officials who messed up. Why go after innocent teams? That’s a disservice to the talented and hard-working BF athletes. Bad call.”
Coaches and officials throughout the state must be concerned now, not with breaking the rules, but making sure that no mistakes are made on an administrative level. Was this an innocent mistake or a repeated failure to comply? Either way, a precedent has now been set.
