GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Grand Rapids Catholic Central is out of the Michigan high school football playoffs after Paul Denenfeld, a Kent County Circuit Court judge, sided Monday with the Michigan High School Athletic Association in a fight over a transfer player.
The ruling came after close to two weeks of court hearings and a day ahead of the Cougars’ scheduled date with Berrien Springs in the final Division 5 district title game left in the state. That Tuesday game will not happen. Berrien Springs, 9-1, moves on by forfeit and visits Grand Rapids West Catholic, 9-2, for a regional final at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14.
The athletic association said the decision backs its eligibility rules and their enforcement as written for every member school. Comstock Park stays eliminated as well, even though a court order had put its Nov. 3 playoff meeting with the Cougars back on, a game Catholic Central won 56-13.
At issue was a player who left Comstock Park for Catholic Central last January. His eligibility hinged on his family fully leaving the Comstock Park district. The association cleared him in August and he played six regular-season games, but it reopened the case in October after getting new information, including a video of the family home, and later ruled him ineligible.
In court, Catholic Central athletic director Mike Jacob testified that his own review and the association review both found the player eligible, citing utility bills plus voter registration and driver license changes. The judge wrote that eligibility rules must be applied consistently and noted a 2004 Michigan Supreme Court ruling that school sports are a privilege, not a right.
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