In the wake of a varsity football season that saw the school district forfeiting three games because of a penalty for use of an ineligible player, Saline Area Schools (SAS) are looking into reviewing the entire athletic department.

The Sun Times News (STN) followed up with SAS Board of Education President Michael McVey by email to ask about this. As part of this, STN asked about the district using a third-party to help in this review.

McVey told STN that, “One of the arguments in favor of a third-party review of the entire athletic department was to provide general insights into how the department is dealing with the many rules and regulations that affect high school sports in Michigan. Community concerns about one or two sports may have initiated a conversation about such a review at the board table, but many board members see such a review as closely related to continuous improvement, something the district as a whole embraces.”

As board president, McVey said he “created an ad hoc committee to determine what a third-party review might be expected to accomplish within reasonable expectations of time and cost and with a guarantee of transparency.”

“We have had conversations with one agency with great expertise in high school athletics, and we anticipate one to two more conversations with other consulting groups. We will share our insights with the full board at a future meeting,” McVey said. “This ad hoc group is not empowered to make recommendations to the board, but board members are welcome to offer their opinions during discussions.”

He said the ad hoc committee may be prepared to share its findings by Dec. 10, “but it is too early to determine yet how long a review would take.”

“I am optimistic that, from start to finish, it may take two months before we see a final report presented to the board,” McVey said. “By and large, the board is quite proud of the successes of our student-athletes, their coaches, and the staff of the athletic department.”

Earlier this fall, SAS Superintendent Steve Laatsch sent out a message to varsity football families stating that residency concerns that potentially impacted athletic eligibility were brought to the attention of him and Athletic Director Ashley Mantha and in turn were investigated. Laatsch said in the interest of honesty and integrity, the district “self-reported those concerns to the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA).”

This led to the forfeiture of the games.

“Failure to establish residency pursuant to MHSAA guidelines and residency fraud are serious infractions,” Laatsch said in his message. “As a result of these infractions, our Saline HS Varsity Football team will unfortunately be forfeiting the first three games of the 2024 varsity football season.”

After this decision and much discussion from the community, the school district asked for an appeal, but that was denied by the MHSAA.

Geoff Kimmerly, Director of Communications for the Michigan High School Athletic Association, said “The school appealed the penalty for use of an ineligible player who had not made a full and complete move into the school district and was not eligible based on any of the allowed exceptions to the transfer rule.”

Kimmerly said, “Per our due process, stated in our Handbook and adopted by every school district annually that chooses to be part of the MHSAA, the appeal was considered by our executive director, who found that this was a clear and obvious violation, and that the school admitted as much in its self-report. The penalty for this type of eligibility violation has always been forfeiture — in this case, the three losses in the three games in which this student played.”