lucyanna girl
<font color=blue>My hair looks like Tigger spit ou
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2005
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This is just WRONG! While I will concede that technically there may have been a violation there were many, many thru-out my state last year. It sounds like sour grapes on someones part. It would be really interesting to know who filed the complaint.
BASTROP Members of this Morehouse Parish community vowed to step up their fight to overturn a decision to strip Bastrop High School of its 2005 Class 4A-state football championship.
At a hastily called town meeting Tuesday, more than 350 people showed their support of an effort to lobby the Louisiana High School Athletic Association to overturn its decision to force Bastrop to forfeit the championship. A day earlier, Morehouse Parish School System officials confirmed the LHSAA ruled that Bastrop illegally recruited student athletes to play football last season and violated the residency transfer rule.
As part of the ruling, Bastrop will be forced to forfeit its 2005 Class 4A-state football championship. In addition, the players involved hurricane evacuees Randall Mackey and Jamal Recasner who transferred from Port Sulphur High School will be ruled ineligible for the upcoming season.
"In my opinion, we're victims of our own success," said Ross Downs of Bastrop, who organized the town meeting. "It's absolutely ridiculous. If the (LHSAA) wants to take away a state championship, do that. But they're not messing with our two kids."
Downs urged supporters to begin a lobbying campaign with the area's elected officials in an effort to get the decision overturned by an LHSAA executive committee, which is scheduled to hear the school's appeal Sept. 6.
State Reps. Charles McDonald, D-Bastrop, and Willie Hunter, D-Monroe, promised to use legislative influence to help get the decision.
Although the report on the school's violations has not been released, several comments made at the meeting were directed at Ouachita Parish High School, where some people in Bastrop believe the complaint to the LHSAA originated.
Bastrop High School Principal Tom Thrower said the school is being penalized for simply helping two students during a time of need immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck southern Louisiana last year. Thrower criticized the LHSAA for being more concerned about sticking by the letter of its rules rather than understanding what was best for the athletes during a time of need during the disaster.
"Every card we have we're going to play," Thrower said. "We are guilty until proven innocent, and we have to go into this with that mentality. If (the LHSAA officials) can't run it any better than this, the state ought to take it over."
Bastrop coach Brad Bradshaw got a standing ovation from the crowd as he talked about the difficulty in facing the team with the news that the state championship was being stripped. Bradshaw defended the actions of an assistant coach, who traveled to Port Sulphur and transported the two athletes to Bastrop after the hurricane.
"Now, we are suffering for doing the right thing," said a stern-faced Bradshaw. "They can take away that trophy, but they cannot take away memories of that season and that night."
Mackey's mother, Carla Ragas, attended Tuesday's meeting. Ragas said she was surprised at the show of support for her son and the football team.
"I just want my child to get back on the football field," Ragas said.
Bastrop High School was penalized not for playing evacuees but for physically transporting them to Morehouse Parish to participate.
School systems were given wide- ranging authority to accept transfers after two consecutive hurricanes battered and closed schools across southern Louisiana a year ago. But outright recruiting was still a violation, according to Louisiana High School Athletics Association commissioner Tommy Henry.
As many as five former Port Sulphur players contacted Bastrop assistants, just days after their homes were destroyed.
That was far from unusual in the devastating aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
But school principal Tom Thrower has confirmed that Stanley and fellow assistant D'Carlos Holmes, a one-time Port Sulphur coach, then traveled to pick them up on the students' repeated request, Thrower notes.
The mother of evacuee quarterback Randall Mackey, Carla Ragas, has also said she asked Holmes to retrieve her son from a Beaumont, Texas, shelter where they were staying in the wake of the storms.
Henry called that a violation.
Thrower has said the school will appeal the ruling.
The sanctions, first reported by The News-Star, were initially discussed during a conference call Monday afternoon with Henry. They are expected to be outlined in a report to arrive at Bastrop High today.
The school will be able to participate in the LHSAA postseason this year, but a series of other penalties are to be announced.
Among them:
Administrative probation for the school, which will last one year.
A $14,000 fine.
The forfeit of all 2005 games, including the Rams' Class 4A championship win.
Sanctioning of assistant coach Holmes, who will not be allowed to participate in games. He can coach at practices and in nonfootball activities.
Bastrop coaches will also be required to attend an educational program.
Ineligibility for two players for this season, Mackey and running back Jamal Recasner. Mackey is a junior, so he will be able to resume playing in 2007. Recasner is a senior.
Three other Port Sulphur evacuees played at Bastrop last season, Jody Ancar, James Brown and Jeremy Sylve. Each was a senior last season. Sylve and Ancar signed with nearby Grambling State University, while Brown has returned to Port Sulphur.
The sanctions come after a preliminary investigation into the eligibility of these same five Port Sulphur players last year, based on a complaint by Ruston High School just before Bastrop's season-ending game against Ouachita High School. All were ruled eligible.
Published: August 30, 2006
Bastrop fans: 'Just wrong'
BASTROP Anger, depression and disbelief.
That sums up the mood around town Tuesday as news of the Rams being stripped of their 2005 Class 4A football title and two players being declared ineligible for this season began to spread around the town.
Those two players, junior Randall Mackey and senior Jamal Recasner, moved to Bastrop last year after being forced out of Port Sulphur by Hurricane Katrina.
Everyone is furious this is just wrong, Bastrops Jerri Yarbrough said as she bought a Rams T-shirt at the Louisiana Team Shop to show her support for the school and football team. The whole thing is wrong, but to punish kids who have their whole lives ahead of them for something like this is especially wrong.
It shouldnt be this way, but let them take the title and trophy. Just let the kids play. This is about those players futures and a chance to attend college. This isnt going to end quietly. Were not going to back down.
Louisiana Team Shop owner Kay Middlebrooks said she was especially concerned with the severity of the sanctions.
These kids went through a disaster last year and to do something like this to them a year later is unbelievable, Middlebrooks said. Youre going to strip them of last years title and not let them play this season? That seems like double jeopardy like theyre being punished twice.
The fact that both ineligible players will miss the season, including Recasner missing his senior season, was worrisome to many residents.
Mackey and his whole family moved up here after the storm they live here now, David Anderson said. Hundreds of players displaced from Katrina went on to play for other schools. But now youre not going to let those two play? This is Recasners senior season this could end his chance of getting a scholarship and going to college. Youre talking about a kids future.
How can the (Louisiana High School Athletic Association) make a ruling like this? Bastrop fought hard to win a state title and was able to help some young people in need in the process. Its not right and if its not corrected I hope someone files a big lawsuit.
Bastrop attorney Charles Herring said he hopes the school does everything it can to fight the ruling.
I hope they appeal and fight this as hard as possible, Herring said. Considering what you see other schools do and the whole situation last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, its hard to understand why the LHSAA is doing this.
High morale hasnt been easy to come by in Bastrop recently as the town fights to keep alive its main industry International Papers Louisiana mill, which is in danger of being closed.
This has the whole town depressed, Herring said. The whole situation of being punished for helping out people in need is bad enough, but it becomes a whole lot darker with the mill situation. The town rallied around the team last season and the championship gave the town some optimism a glimmer of hope.
Now its all just devastating on top of the possibility of the mill closing.
Bastrops Alan Sims, whose son plays for the Rams, is still trying to figure out how all of this happened.
Why single out this one-horse town? Sims said. It just doesnt make sense. Kids were in need and they received the help they needed. Did someone from the football program make someone mad? Is someone else jealous because we won the state title? If you looked at what happened after Katrina last year, you know it had to have happened elsewhere. Why are we being singled out?
Bastrop assistant DeCarlos Holmes, a former coach at Port Sulphur, has been banned from coaching during Rams games this season and is at the center of the situation after reportedly going down to south Louisiana following Katrina and bringing the players back up to north Louisiana and Bastrop High.
I think he was looking out for kids he knew personally and kids he knew were in need, Herring said. They had been talking to another player who was up here and asked Coach Holmes to come get them and bring them back up here. Port Sulphur High School was wiped out last year and I think this group of kids from down there wanted to finish what they started together and they picked Bastrop as where they wanted to do it.
Now theyre being punished for it.
The fact that the punishment comes after the town of Bastrop showed compassion to storm victims is especially hard for residents to comprehend.
I remember when the kids first came up here last year it was big news because the school and town was doing such a good thing, Patricia Bareswill said. Now its a bad thing? I dont think anything would have been done if Bastrop hadnt won the state title. It seems like this one school was singled out just because it did win the championship.
Others echoed Bareswills concern that on the anniversary of Katrinas strike on Louisiana, Bastrop is now being punished for lending a helping hand.
Its a surprise to me that they ruled on the basis of players moving from Port Sulphur, which had been wiped out by the storm, and the severity of the sanctions, Herring said. Theres so many teams throughout the state that had players from south Louisiana join them after the storm it just seems like were a target because we won the title.
BASTROP Members of this Morehouse Parish community vowed to step up their fight to overturn a decision to strip Bastrop High School of its 2005 Class 4A-state football championship.
At a hastily called town meeting Tuesday, more than 350 people showed their support of an effort to lobby the Louisiana High School Athletic Association to overturn its decision to force Bastrop to forfeit the championship. A day earlier, Morehouse Parish School System officials confirmed the LHSAA ruled that Bastrop illegally recruited student athletes to play football last season and violated the residency transfer rule.
As part of the ruling, Bastrop will be forced to forfeit its 2005 Class 4A-state football championship. In addition, the players involved hurricane evacuees Randall Mackey and Jamal Recasner who transferred from Port Sulphur High School will be ruled ineligible for the upcoming season.
"In my opinion, we're victims of our own success," said Ross Downs of Bastrop, who organized the town meeting. "It's absolutely ridiculous. If the (LHSAA) wants to take away a state championship, do that. But they're not messing with our two kids."
Downs urged supporters to begin a lobbying campaign with the area's elected officials in an effort to get the decision overturned by an LHSAA executive committee, which is scheduled to hear the school's appeal Sept. 6.
State Reps. Charles McDonald, D-Bastrop, and Willie Hunter, D-Monroe, promised to use legislative influence to help get the decision.
Although the report on the school's violations has not been released, several comments made at the meeting were directed at Ouachita Parish High School, where some people in Bastrop believe the complaint to the LHSAA originated.
Bastrop High School Principal Tom Thrower said the school is being penalized for simply helping two students during a time of need immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck southern Louisiana last year. Thrower criticized the LHSAA for being more concerned about sticking by the letter of its rules rather than understanding what was best for the athletes during a time of need during the disaster.
"Every card we have we're going to play," Thrower said. "We are guilty until proven innocent, and we have to go into this with that mentality. If (the LHSAA officials) can't run it any better than this, the state ought to take it over."
Bastrop coach Brad Bradshaw got a standing ovation from the crowd as he talked about the difficulty in facing the team with the news that the state championship was being stripped. Bradshaw defended the actions of an assistant coach, who traveled to Port Sulphur and transported the two athletes to Bastrop after the hurricane.
"Now, we are suffering for doing the right thing," said a stern-faced Bradshaw. "They can take away that trophy, but they cannot take away memories of that season and that night."
Mackey's mother, Carla Ragas, attended Tuesday's meeting. Ragas said she was surprised at the show of support for her son and the football team.
"I just want my child to get back on the football field," Ragas said.
Bastrop High School was penalized not for playing evacuees but for physically transporting them to Morehouse Parish to participate.
School systems were given wide- ranging authority to accept transfers after two consecutive hurricanes battered and closed schools across southern Louisiana a year ago. But outright recruiting was still a violation, according to Louisiana High School Athletics Association commissioner Tommy Henry.
As many as five former Port Sulphur players contacted Bastrop assistants, just days after their homes were destroyed.
That was far from unusual in the devastating aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
But school principal Tom Thrower has confirmed that Stanley and fellow assistant D'Carlos Holmes, a one-time Port Sulphur coach, then traveled to pick them up on the students' repeated request, Thrower notes.
The mother of evacuee quarterback Randall Mackey, Carla Ragas, has also said she asked Holmes to retrieve her son from a Beaumont, Texas, shelter where they were staying in the wake of the storms.
Henry called that a violation.
Thrower has said the school will appeal the ruling.
The sanctions, first reported by The News-Star, were initially discussed during a conference call Monday afternoon with Henry. They are expected to be outlined in a report to arrive at Bastrop High today.
The school will be able to participate in the LHSAA postseason this year, but a series of other penalties are to be announced.
Among them:
Administrative probation for the school, which will last one year.
A $14,000 fine.
The forfeit of all 2005 games, including the Rams' Class 4A championship win.
Sanctioning of assistant coach Holmes, who will not be allowed to participate in games. He can coach at practices and in nonfootball activities.
Bastrop coaches will also be required to attend an educational program.
Ineligibility for two players for this season, Mackey and running back Jamal Recasner. Mackey is a junior, so he will be able to resume playing in 2007. Recasner is a senior.
Three other Port Sulphur evacuees played at Bastrop last season, Jody Ancar, James Brown and Jeremy Sylve. Each was a senior last season. Sylve and Ancar signed with nearby Grambling State University, while Brown has returned to Port Sulphur.
The sanctions come after a preliminary investigation into the eligibility of these same five Port Sulphur players last year, based on a complaint by Ruston High School just before Bastrop's season-ending game against Ouachita High School. All were ruled eligible.
Published: August 30, 2006
Bastrop fans: 'Just wrong'
BASTROP Anger, depression and disbelief.
That sums up the mood around town Tuesday as news of the Rams being stripped of their 2005 Class 4A football title and two players being declared ineligible for this season began to spread around the town.
Those two players, junior Randall Mackey and senior Jamal Recasner, moved to Bastrop last year after being forced out of Port Sulphur by Hurricane Katrina.
Everyone is furious this is just wrong, Bastrops Jerri Yarbrough said as she bought a Rams T-shirt at the Louisiana Team Shop to show her support for the school and football team. The whole thing is wrong, but to punish kids who have their whole lives ahead of them for something like this is especially wrong.
It shouldnt be this way, but let them take the title and trophy. Just let the kids play. This is about those players futures and a chance to attend college. This isnt going to end quietly. Were not going to back down.
Louisiana Team Shop owner Kay Middlebrooks said she was especially concerned with the severity of the sanctions.
These kids went through a disaster last year and to do something like this to them a year later is unbelievable, Middlebrooks said. Youre going to strip them of last years title and not let them play this season? That seems like double jeopardy like theyre being punished twice.
The fact that both ineligible players will miss the season, including Recasner missing his senior season, was worrisome to many residents.
Mackey and his whole family moved up here after the storm they live here now, David Anderson said. Hundreds of players displaced from Katrina went on to play for other schools. But now youre not going to let those two play? This is Recasners senior season this could end his chance of getting a scholarship and going to college. Youre talking about a kids future.
How can the (Louisiana High School Athletic Association) make a ruling like this? Bastrop fought hard to win a state title and was able to help some young people in need in the process. Its not right and if its not corrected I hope someone files a big lawsuit.
Bastrop attorney Charles Herring said he hopes the school does everything it can to fight the ruling.
I hope they appeal and fight this as hard as possible, Herring said. Considering what you see other schools do and the whole situation last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, its hard to understand why the LHSAA is doing this.
High morale hasnt been easy to come by in Bastrop recently as the town fights to keep alive its main industry International Papers Louisiana mill, which is in danger of being closed.
This has the whole town depressed, Herring said. The whole situation of being punished for helping out people in need is bad enough, but it becomes a whole lot darker with the mill situation. The town rallied around the team last season and the championship gave the town some optimism a glimmer of hope.
Now its all just devastating on top of the possibility of the mill closing.
Bastrops Alan Sims, whose son plays for the Rams, is still trying to figure out how all of this happened.
Why single out this one-horse town? Sims said. It just doesnt make sense. Kids were in need and they received the help they needed. Did someone from the football program make someone mad? Is someone else jealous because we won the state title? If you looked at what happened after Katrina last year, you know it had to have happened elsewhere. Why are we being singled out?
Bastrop assistant DeCarlos Holmes, a former coach at Port Sulphur, has been banned from coaching during Rams games this season and is at the center of the situation after reportedly going down to south Louisiana following Katrina and bringing the players back up to north Louisiana and Bastrop High.
I think he was looking out for kids he knew personally and kids he knew were in need, Herring said. They had been talking to another player who was up here and asked Coach Holmes to come get them and bring them back up here. Port Sulphur High School was wiped out last year and I think this group of kids from down there wanted to finish what they started together and they picked Bastrop as where they wanted to do it.
Now theyre being punished for it.
The fact that the punishment comes after the town of Bastrop showed compassion to storm victims is especially hard for residents to comprehend.
I remember when the kids first came up here last year it was big news because the school and town was doing such a good thing, Patricia Bareswill said. Now its a bad thing? I dont think anything would have been done if Bastrop hadnt won the state title. It seems like this one school was singled out just because it did win the championship.
Others echoed Bareswills concern that on the anniversary of Katrinas strike on Louisiana, Bastrop is now being punished for lending a helping hand.
Its a surprise to me that they ruled on the basis of players moving from Port Sulphur, which had been wiped out by the storm, and the severity of the sanctions, Herring said. Theres so many teams throughout the state that had players from south Louisiana join them after the storm it just seems like were a target because we won the title.
