Rosewood forfeits game to Princeton

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 11, 2015 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Robert Britt called it an honest mistake.

And the Rosewood High athletics director, along with head baseball coach Jason King, delivered some devastating news to the team earlier today. The Eagles' senior night victory over Princeton is now a forfeit, according to a decision rendered by the N.C. High School Athletic Association late Friday evening.

Rosewood entered the final week of regular-season play with four conference games remaining on its schedule. Britt and King called to ask the Association if the Eagles' JV team could play Neuse Charter on Tuesday, thinking they would be playing three varsity games and not violate the Association's rule.

"I honestly felt like I had started the conversation the right way," said Britt. "When I was talking specifically about Neuse, I didn't say Neuse Charter varsity team. I said we were sending our JV team to play Neuse Charter and that seems to be where the confusion came in.

"Even though there was confusion on their end about what was asked, we had to forfeit the win. There should have been clarity on what we were asking. It's always been the Association's request that you do everything you can to get all of your regular-season games in and that's all we were thinking about."

Association rules state that a team may play four games in a week - only if one day involves a doubleheader and the other is on a non-school day. No. individual player is allowed to exceed the minimum of 23 games played in any season.

Britt thought he had crossed all of his "T's" and dotted his "I's."

But the glaring miscommunication that took place still needed clarification. Trae Waters, the director of sports and championships at the Association, misunderstood Britt during their initial phone conversation and thought that two JV teams were playing each other instead of a JV team playing a varsity team.

When Waters realized it was a fourth varsity game, he turned the matter over to NCHSAA commissioner Davis Whitfield and deputy commissioner Que Tucker. Each concluded Rosewood had broken the rule of playing four varsity games in one week, but waived the normal $500 due to the misinformation that Britt had received in previous discussions.

"It was a whirlwind of a conversation," Britt said. "The lesson I take away from it is when we're getting clarification or special permission to do something, I better make sure I'm talking to the right person at the Association and make sure they understand what we're trying to do.

"Our baseball team has to forfeit that game (with Princeton) because two adults had miscommunicated, and I hate it."

Britt said the error doesn't diminish the fact that the Eagles defeated the Nos. 1-, 2- and 4-ranked teams in conference play during four consecutive days. However, the forfeit moved Princeton to No. 2 and dropped Rosewood to No. 3 for the postseason.

"What they did last week was special," said Britt, who informed the team of the decision earlier today.

"(And) I don't want the integrity of Rosewood to be questioned because we weren't trying to get an advantage, but complete our season which was our main goal. I made sure that was my only concern."