After winning its third consecutive league pennant with an 8-1 victory over Tam in the MCAL final, the Redwood boys’ tennis team was forced to default multiple regular-season wins and their MCAL championship because an unnamed freshman was found to be academically ineligible.
Redwood Athletic Director Jessica Peisch informed the team of the decision on May 9, citing the fact that the unnamed freshman received a D in one of his classes for the R5 grading period, thus violating MCAL academic policy and making illegal all matches in which he participated.
The freshman attends Tamiscal, making Peisch’s access to his grade reports difficult, possibly leading to the lapse in communication about player’s eligibility.
Because the player failed to meet the MCAL academic requirements, all matches in which he played were defaulted to Redwood’s opponent. Redwood’s regular-season record was thus lowered from 18-5 to 13-10.
Head coach Paul Markowitz did not learn of the player’s ineligibility until after the MCAL playoffs, so he had no chance to address the problem or remove the freshman from his lineup.
Redwood ceded what would have been its third consecutive MCAL title to second-place finisher Tam.
Principal David Sondheim issued an email to the team apologizing for the incident, adding that the school would take the necessary steps to ensure that the situation would not be repeated in the future.
Despite the forfeited matches, Redwood earned the ninth seed in the NCS Division I Tournament and was eliminated by first-seeded Dougherty Valley in the quarterfinals.
