Maori Davenport Ruled Ineligible In H.S. Due To Mistake By USA Basketball | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Maori Davenport Ruled Ineligible In H.S. Due To Mistake By USA Basketball

The following is posted for context only, not to excuse the miserable "rules for the sake of rules" mentality which appears to have guided the Davenport decision.

"Mission
The Alabama High School Athletic Association, founded in 1921, is a private agency organized by its member schools to control and promote their athletic programs. The purpose of the AHSAA is to regulate, coordinate and promote the interscholastic athletic programs among its member schools, which include public, private and parochial institutions.

[...]


Function
The AHSAA, providing a vehicle which member schools may write their own rules and regulations, determines that schools are abiding by those standards in such areas as student eligibility, contests and championship programs. "
source:History


Note the total absence of any words regarding students, their well-being, etc.
What does all this mean? In short, it tells us that they are carrying out their mission, which is narrow, rigid, and indifferent to the students their rules govern.
 
The obvios result is/should be that players with international abilities have to move out of Alabama. I wish American Football was an Olympic sport just to see if the same decision would be made, I sincerely doubt it. As an over 50 year coach and official I can tell you many upper level rule makers are in it for power not for kids.
 
I'd like to see high school coaches for the teams her team would play say they will forfeit upcoming games against her team if she is not allowed to play, and then both teams will play an unofficial game, with Davenport, on their own time instead. If every high school team refused to abide by this decision and play games without her, the organization would lose all power overnight. I hope that's the next step, since this turd clearly will not relent on his own.
 
BTW: Our very own Ann Strother was in a similar position during her high school years in Colorado. She played on a USABasketball team in a tourney and each member of the team received a stipend..

The Boston Globe article today says that USABasketball is supposed to check with each state's official high school organization as to whether the player can accept or not the stipend. Ann did play all her years in high school so that would suggest that Colorado either allows its high school players to receive that money...or that Ann never did accept it.

BTW: Back then and right now the money is called a 'stipend'.
Sounds very academic and Ivy-Leaguish...that is nonsense.
It is prize money plain and simple. The players who win the gold get more prize money than the second place team and they get more prize money than the third placeteam.

How is her team doing? The season is passing by....I hope she gets her eligibility restored and there are enough games left for her team to qualify for the state tourney even if a lower seed is their slot due to Maori's absence.
 
Sifaka said:
The following is posted for context only, not to excuse the miserable "rules for the sake of rules" mentality which appears to have guided the Davenport decision.

"Mission
The Alabama High School Athletic Association, founded in 1921, is a private agency organized by its member schools to control and promote their athletic programs. The purpose of the AHSAA is to regulate, coordinate and promote the interscholastic athletic programs among its member schools, which include public, private and parochial institutions.

[...]


Function
The AHSAA, providing a vehicle which member schools may write their own rules and regulations, determines that schools are abiding by those standards in such areas as student eligibility, contests and championship programs. "
source:History


Note the total absence of any words regarding students, their well-being, etc.
What does all this mean? In short, it tells us that they are carrying out their mission, which is narrow, rigid, and indifferent to the students their rules govern.
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If this was Alabama football she would be good to go with a 50K stipend.
 
blakeon18 said:
BTW: Back then and right now the money is called a 'stipend'.
Sounds very academic and Ivy-Leaguish...that is nonsense.
It is prize money plain and simple. The players who win the gold get more prize money than the second place team and they get more prize money than the third place team.
Expand ...

It is not prize money it is truly stipend which include a "per diem" component all administered by USA basketball and consistent with NCAA and rules. Prize money from these FIBA tournaments would make all the UCONN starters and ONO NCAA ineligible. Because the calculations are based on per day basis explains why a player on a second place team would get a bigger stipend than player on the third place team simply because the 2nd place team might be competing for more days. The same is true for a player that goes to Colorado springs and tries out for the team and does make it. They still get a stipend for the days they are at the trials.
There is also a component of the stipend that allows USA basketball to compensate for lost income opportunities for things like not being able to hold down a summer part time job while you are traveling with USA basketball.
 
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Coco: I would tend to defer to you on many basketball fronts and I am sure there are legal openings to defend the 'stipend' as opposed to 'prize money'.

Having said that:

If the silver medal and bronze medal teams play games on the same number of days, then the players on both teams would get the same amount of money? If so...that would fit your characterization. But do they get the same amount?



If the stipend 'includes' a per diem aspect, does that imply there is an additional amount based on how the team finishes...which would....imo...more than suggest 'prize money'

The fact that the NCAA views the payments as within the rules is clearly accurate...but I don't for a minute cede 100% infallibilty to that organization....except maybe in self-serving policies.

BTW: in these legal matters my go-to person is Della Street of Perry Mason fame. I will be checking with her to see if I have a 100% chance of winning this case. After all...the only person who wins more than Geno is Perry in the courtroom.
 
The core culprit here is the ridiculously low stipend limit Alabama has - $250.
 
Sifaka said:
USA Basketball made a mistake. They became aware of the mistake, and took reasonable steps to correct it. Mr. Savarese and the Alabama High School Athletic Assoc. therefore punished the student. This was done to uphold and defend the sanctity of "The Rules". Defending The Rules is clearly the most important thing
the AHSAA can do, for the benefit of Mr. Savarese's job security, regardless of any harm to the student or to high school athletics in Alabama.

One might draw many conclusions from this pitiful chain of events, among which...

1) expletives deleted

2) The Gods were so expletives deleted at AL that they smiled upon a land grant school from SC last night.

3) Mr. Savarese and the entire "leadership" of e AHSAA are auditioning for positions in the former Soviet Union, administering a five year plan to increase the velcro crop in Murmansk.
Expand ...

And this entire controversy is over a tiny amount of money that was paid to help kids defray the costs of going to that tournament and losing out on the ability to make cash during that period.

It is yet another example of the cruelty of this mania with amateurship, while everyone else associated with amateur sports makes big bucks. No problem having college coaches pay big money to tournament organizers so that they can scope out the future college talent.
 
Plebe said:
Savarese continued, and his tone became more stern. "My charge is to uphold the rules. What if I said 'no'? What if I let her play? If I make an exception to one rule, it opens up a Pandora's box on all of our rules. How could I enforce any rule? If I made an exception here, I would be arbitrary and capricious."​
Expand ...

1547219438786.png
 
BackBay said:
it appears his reason for doing this is not to set precedent for future exceptions...but, in today's day and age of transparency, empathy, and fairness, he's losing all credibility...
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He has one reason, and one reason only, to continue this suspension: he’s on a power trip.

Maori Davenport already paid everything back. It’s pathetic that the suspension is being upheld.
 
.-.
It’s good to know there are still people out there with character and common sense.

A little background on Sonny Reagan, the judge who ruled in Davenport’s favor. He is married and the father of four young children. Reagan, a former officer in the U.S. Army, served in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom as a Chinook helicopter pilot.
 
wallman said:
Wow, this is great news.
Expand ...

Hold on with the celebrating. This was a temporary restraining order, so there has to be at least an injunction hearing where there must be a showing that the player will likely prevail on the merits and she will suffer irreparable harm if the injunction is not granted. Of course, thems the rules, but whether they'll be followed....
 
.-.
Sifaka said:
USA Basketball made a mistake. They became aware of the mistake, and took reasonable steps to correct it. Mr. Savarese and the Alabama High School Athletic Assoc. therefore punished the student. This was done to uphold and defend the sanctity of "The Rules". Defending The Rules is clearly the most important thing
the AHSAA can do, for the benefit of Mr. Savarese's job security, regardless of any harm to the student or to high school athletics in Alabama.

One might draw many conclusions from this pitiful chain of events, among which...

1) expletives deleted

2) The Gods were so expletives deleted at AL that they smiled upon a land grant school from SC last night.

3) Mr. Savarese and the entire "leadership" of e AHSAA are auditioning for positions in the former Soviet Union, administering a five year plan to increase the velcro crop in Murmansk.
Expand ...
I think that there are several more prominent Americans who have already auditioned for those jobs. And to my knowledge only one of them is from Alabama. I believe that they have the jobs "locked up", so to speak. ;) On a more serious note, this a a terrible decision by an archaic institution in the state in which I live. Women's sports are not highly regarded by the ASHAA. Many years ago, my daughter was fortunate enough to play in the AAU girls basketball national championship tournament. The coach from the eventual champion ,a team from Texas, commented upon the restrictive rules that ASHAA places upon women's sports.
 
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While I would like to see her reinstated, judges should keep their noses out of issues like this. Judges were never meant to have the power they have given themselves. Judges roles are to interpret the law not make it.
 
willtalk said:
While I would like to see her reinstated, judges should keep their noses out of issues like this. Judges were never meant to have the power they have given themselves. Judges roles are to interpret the law not make it.
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A motion was filed and the judge made a decision on it. He was doing his job. It was a civil case, not a criminal one.
 
willtalk said:
While I would like to see her reinstated, judges should keep their noses out of issues like this. Judges were never meant to have the power they have given themselves. Judges roles are to interpret the law not make it.
Expand ...
A judge has wide latitude to provide “injunctive relief” as a remedy to unfair, misapplied or burdensome regulation, which is exactly what he did in this instance. This is not about changing the Alabama state constitution.
 
For those who.like to get into the weeds, here is the entire complaint filed by the young lady's parents: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MaoriDavenport.pdf

It asserts that the AHSAA, in addition to other errors, did not follow its own procedural rules, that its behavior in this and other cases has been arbitrary, that it is, de facto, a state actor masquerading as a private institution, and that...

(hold onto your hats, folks!)

in a case concerning recruiting violations, and the suspension of a football team's eligibility, the suspension was miraculously undone, without explanation.

No, you can't make this stuff up.

And, if this clusterpluck weren't seedy and sad enough to begin with, we find the cameo appearance of none other than Mr. Jeff Waltz, giving curious advice on behalf of USA Basketball.


image.jpeg
 
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.-.
Sifaka said:
For those who.like to get into the weeds, here is the entire complaint filed by the young lady's parents: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MaoriDavenport.pdf

It asserts that the AHSAA, in addition to other errors, did not follow its own procedural rules, that its behavior in this and other cases has been arbitrary, that it is, de facto, a state actor masquerading as a private institution, and that...

(hold onto your hats, folks!)

in a case concerning recruiting violations, and the suspension of a football team's eligibility, the suspension was miraculously undone, without explanation.

No, you can't make this stuff up.

And, if this clusterpluck weren't seedy and sad enough to begin with, we find the cameo appearance of none other than Mr. Jeff Waltz, giving curious advice on behalf of USA Basketball.


View attachment 38211
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I assume Jeff Walz will be asked point blank and will be curious if he backs Maori's story on this point.
 
I wonder if the result winds up favoring the suspension if her team will have to forfeit any games she played.
 
Past experience with ASHAA leads me to believe that this is tied to the standard internecine squabbles in high school athletics that probably occur everywhere. There are entrenched power centers and some school districts tend to protect their private agendas. My guess is that a powerful coach in the same conference/ district/ classification made some noise and ASHAA resorted to the old saw that rules are rules. It would not be the first time! I must admit that I do not have solid evidence to back this up, but I have seen things like it before in this sport.
 
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