More than a week’s worth of school cancellations have delayed the final results of an investigation into a pair of fifth-year senior boys basketball players at T.C. Williams, according to Morton Sherman, superintendent of Alexandria City Public Schools.
The report, originally scheduled to cross Sherman’s desk on February 5, became “three or four days behind,” Sherman said. He expected the information to be ready today.
On February 1, the athletic department discovered that seniors Billy Rowland, then the team’s leading scorer, and Darrius Porter were playing their fifth year of high school sports, breaking state rules on athletic eligibility.The Titans played their first game since the debacle on Tuesday night, beating Lake Braddock 54-29.
Since announcing February 2 that an in-depth examination of the situation and the eligibility of all T.C. athletes was due at the end of that week, school has been closed eight of nine days. Efforts to resume classes have since kept school officials preoccupied from resolving the incident that led the team to erase its 12-3 record and start anew at 0-15.
“I’m waiting for a report to be sent to me from the state with our 2007 eligibility list so I can go back and see if the error was there,” Sherman said Tuesday evening. “I know I have a responsibility to report out to the community, so as soon as [I can] I will.”