It has been a long, frustrating summer for junior hoop stars Chad Jackson and Dakotah Euton as they battled with the KHSAA over their eligibility to play this season after transferring from Rose Hill to Scott County. Now it is finally over.
The KHSAA Board of Control voted by a count of 16-0 that Jackson and Euton be reinstated to play for the Cardinals this season.
Dakotah Euton has already signed with the University of Kentucky, while Chad Jackson is considered one of the top unsigned players in the state's class of 2010.
Dakotah Euton and Chad Jackson are set to have their hearing with the KHSAA Board of Control on Monday, August 25th. They will likely be reinstated to play this coming season for Scott County.
After being ruled ineligible to play this coming season by the KHSAA, it seems teammates Chad Jackson and Dakotah Euton may take the court after all for the 2008-09 season.
After playing two seasons together at Rose Hill, the two phenoms decided to transfer to Scott County and play for Coach Billy Hicks. They were unexpectedly deemed ineligible by the KHSAA in a bizarre turn of events which saw one player (Euton) announced ineligible and the other (Jackson), eligible at first - only to have KHSAA commissioner Brigid DeVries come back and say that the notice announcing Jackson’s eligibility was a clerical error and that he was in fact ineligible as well.
With Dakotah Euton being a UK signee and Jackson on the Cats’ radar as well, the KHSAA took much scrutiny for this decision, and deservedly so in my opinion.
Then this past Sunday came the news that the KHSAA Hearing Officer assigned to Euton and Jackson’s appeals gave them a favorable ruling saying that they should be eligible for the coming season.
Euton and Jackson are not out of the woods yet, however, as there is still plenty of red tape to get through for the Hearing Officer’s ruling to be made official. Here is what lies ahead for them: (Courtesy A Sea of Blue)
Each party to the hearing has 15 days from the date that the findings were mailed to them to object to anything in the findings; 15 days after that, Brigid DeVries must act. She can:
- Accept the Hearing Officer’s decision and adopt it as final;
- Reject or modify the order in whole or in part;
- Remand the order to the Hearing Officer, in whole or in part, for “further proceedings as appropriate.” After issuance of a final order, the order may be subjected to judicial review (i.e. a lawsuit may be filed).
Unbelieveable. Un-freaking-believable. As reported earlier, Scott County High School received two letters from the KHSAA offices on Tuesday regarding the eligibility of two transfers from Rose Hill.
One letter stated that transfer Dakotah Euton was ruled ineligible. The other stated that his Rose Hill teammate and best friend, Chad Jackson, would be eligible to play next season. This has caused a lot of anger and confusion across the bluegrass. Now it just got worse.
Probably realizing that they couldn't make one guy eligible and the other not without any real clear reason why, the KHSAA called Scott County HS athletic office on wednesday and informed them that Chad Jackson was also ineligible. Their excuse for the letter on tuesday saying the opposite? Apparently it was a "clerical error." Riiiiight. And gullable is written on the ceiling.
This is absolutely ridiculous. These guys may be high profile athletes, but they are still just kids that should get the chance to play the sport they love while they still can. They do not deserve to be held down by some political B.S. with no apparent rhyme or reason just so the KHSAA can flex some muscle.
Both Euton's and Jackson's parents have said they plan to appeal the rulings. I really hope that these kids' parents and the Scott County community do take action because this has got to stop before our state high school athletics program gets turned into a laughing stock. The commissioner of the KHSAA is Brigid DeVries......firebrigid.com???
Here's the deal: After playing his first two seasons of high school ball at Rose Hill, Dakotah Euton transferred to Scott County because of his father's job change. Along with him came best friend and fellow Rose Hill basketball player Chad Jackson. For some reason, the KHSAA decided to clear Jackson to play next season, but not Euton. I'm not an expert on these situations and don't pretend to be, so for the rest of the story I'll refer you to Chris Diggs' UK blog at the courier-journal.com.
