Goldsboro forfeits pair of football victories

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on December 10, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Goldsboro High School athletics director Dwight Sutton officially announced Tuesday afternoon that the school has forfeited two football games due to using an academically ineligible player.

The player in question passed just two spring classes and did take a recovery credit course. The credit was noted on the student-athlete's academic record, however, it did not properly state where the credit had been applied.

N.C. High School Athletic Association rules state that an athlete must pass three of four classes to retain athletic eligibility.

Sutton received an interim eligibility report that is completed after every semester.

"We discovered it was a clerical error when we checked the eligibility," Sutton said. "As soon as we found out, we called the coaches of the schools (involved) and the conference (president). We wanted to make sure the information was passed down in the correct manner after we called Chapel Hill."

The Cougars forfeited victories against Eastern Carolina 2-A Conference opponents South Lenoir and North Lenoir. The result left Goldsboro 1-10 overall and 0-5 in conference play for the first time since 2006 when it competed in the Eastern Plains 2-A Conference.

Ironically, Goldsboro's lone win is a forfeit obtained from Southern Wayne, which used an ineligible player in their early September meeting.

Sutton said the Association reduced the fine to $250 since the school self-reported the incident.

"It was an oversight, a rookie mistake," Sutton said. "I have talked to several other athletic directors. The rules are getting tougher and they said it's not hard for something like this to happen.

"There are so many things we have to check now."