The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association has ruled that former Clinton High School athlete Ryan Sharpe was ineligible during the 2008-2009 basketball season and for the football season opener Aug. 21 at Halls, according to principal Linda Davis in an Anderson County Schools release.
Clinton must vacate the wins accrued in which Sharpe participated, meaning the Dragons’ football team will be 8-0 and 6-0 in District 3-AAA — rather than 9-0 (7-0) — going into Thursday night’s televised game (MyVLT2) with Anderson County (7-2, 6-1).
Basketball wins vacated were not specified in the release.
Clinton athletic director Jim Davis voluntarily reported the violations once he learned of them, the release stated. But while the TSSAA only imposed a $250 fine for the basketball infraction and a $50 fine for the football infraction due to Davis’ move, it did add a $2,000 fine and a two-year probation period due to a non-technical violation of the recruiting law.
Sharpe was found to have been provided “a special privilege not normally provided to other students,” the TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress stated in his letter to Clinton and was quoted as saying in the release.
Sharpe was granted a hardship by the TSSAA in December of 2008, after transferring from Jefferson County, on the basis he live with his father in Clinton. But the TSSAA investigation, the release stated, found that Sharpe lived “several nights a week” with assistant principal, assistant coach and “family friend” Scotty Herrell.
Sharpe left Clinton the week after the Halls game and re-enrolled at Jefferson County.
Linda Davis said in the release that “the school’s effort to help any student in need, and, in particular, Herrell’s assistance to students, were not unusual and were not based on Sharpe’s participation in athletics.”
The TSSAA does not comment on its rulings for a 24-hour period, allowing schools ample time to handle the matter first.