AD ‘embarrassed’ by grade snafu

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Oct. 30, 1998 | 10:33 a.m.

In the span of less than a month, three area schools have forfeited a total of 15 soccer matches and four football games, and three playoff-bound squads have been kept out of the postseason.

All that for violating the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association's rules regarding academic eligibility.

"It's an embarrassment to the whole school district," Clark County Athletic Director Larry McKay said. "It reflects badly on all of Las Vegas."

The most recent incident -- Wednesday's announcement that Las Vegas High has forfeited four football games and its spot in the 4A Southern Zone playoffs -- has local school administrators talking about reviewing the current system to see if it works.

"It's tough to be perfect, but it's obvious we need to review this and make sure everyone is doing this correctly," McKay said. "The athletic directors and myself need to get back together and review these things and figure out what's going wrong."

Currently, students receive clearance to participate in athletics if they carry a 2.0 grade-point-average from the previous semester. Their academic progress is checked throughout the year, with mandatory three-week checks to ensure they are not failing a class.

Students who are failing are supposed to be reported by their teachers and placed on academic probation.

Palo Verde Athletic Director Darwin Rost suggested the NIAA should consider doing away with those mandated grade checks, allowing athletic eligibility to be dependent entirely on the student's grades from the previous semester.

That would eliminate situations like the one at Las Vegas High, in which a student continued to play despite carrying a failing grade for most of the fall.

"It would be nice if at the end of the season, you check grades and if a kid has a 2.0, he becomes eligible for the whole year," Rost said.

Several administrators stressed better communication as a way to avoid potential future incidents.

According to School Superintendent Brian Cram, the district needs to do a better job educating its personnel on the particulars of the NIAA guidelines.

"We grow so quickly, sometimes we get new folks involved," Cram said. "We may ask school principals to go over the rules on a more regular basis."

But McKay admits that no matter what area schools do in response to the recent outbreak of eligibility-related forfeits, similar situations are bound to occur.

"You have to have rules, and I think the rules are fair," McKay said. "Short of letting the kids play whenever they want to, I don't know what else we can do."