Politics & Government

Legislators To Challenge SCHSL After Goose Creek Decision

Goose Creek controversy spurs action.

It won’t help Goose Creek this year, but a pair of lawmakers wants to make sure the executive committee of the South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) never again has the opportunity to unilaterally expel a team from the playoffs.

Last Monday, the committee ruled that the Goose Creek football team had dressed a player who had used his eligibility, which caused the nation's No. 11 team to forfeit games, be fined more than $3,000 and be disqualified from the state playoffs. The week previous, the committee made a similar ruling, but a judge issued a stay just hours before a scheduled playoff game, allowing the Goose Creek season to continue. 

For Bakari Sellers (D-Bamberg), the sight of watching athletic competitions being decided in courtrooms was too much.

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He plans on drafting a bill to examine the role of the SCHSL.

“We need an investigation into their by-laws and make sure what they’re doing is constitutional and that they’re serving the right purpose,” Sellers told Patch. “The appeals process appears to lack due process.”

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Sellers said he sympathized with what happened in the Goose Creek situation, but the issues are larger than just one ruling. “The whole state is affected by (the SCHSL’s) decisions.”

The best place for jurisdiction of the SCHSL to occur would be the Education Committee, according to Sellers.

While Sellers thinks the SCHSL is just in need of oversight, a Lowcountry Senator wants to go further.

Sen. Larry Grooms (R-Berkeley) said he plans on pre-filing legislation that would revoke the charter of the SCHSL. Grooms took to his Facebook page to blast the organization, calling it and Executive Director Jerome Singleton “corrupt.”

Sellers isn’t willing to go that far.

“I don’t believe it should be abolished,” he said. “It provides a critical service.”


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