How Austin-East overcame a postseason ban to play in the TSSAA basketball state tournament

MURFREESBORO — A year ago Austin-East and Brainerd were boys basketball state tournament contenders forced to watch from afar after a brawl marred their season and put a road block in front of the postseason.

"We didn't have a season at this time (last year)," Austin-East coach Marcus Stanton said. "Last season we had been on moth balls and didn't know when we'd play again."

Now, Austin-East and Chattanooga Brainerd are more than TSSAA state tournament participants this year.

They have set the precedent and shown others that there is indeed a path back to the state tournament even after a fight lands a program on restrictive probation, which keeps teams out of the playoffs.

"Mistakes are made," TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress said. "What the Board (of Control) wanted to do is to make this negative into a positive.

"I give Brainerd and Austin-East credit. They had a plan in place and already started it when they came to us."

Austin-East finished its season 24-6 after a 79-61 loss to Class AA tournament favorite Memphis Wooddale on Wednesday at MTSU's Murphy Center.

"We overcame a lot of obstacles and the people that doubted us," said Austin-East's Ronney Pierson, who had a team-high 15 points. "We decided to step up and show people that we should have been here last year and this year."

This school year Antioch and Overton had their football teams placed on restrictive probation for two years after they were involved in a fight.

The boys basketball teams from Adamsville, Memphis Fairley, Melrose, Memphis Westwood and Scotts Hill were all placed on two years of restrictive probation due to being involved in fights. Stratford was placed on one year of restrictive probation.

"Hopefully some other schools that have been put in this unfortunate situation will take suit," Childress said. "I think they have now, speaking the Board, have set a precedent.

"We can turn a wrong into a right and change the culture of high school athletics."

The Austin-East and Brainerd fight on Jan. 26, 2018 started on the court and quickly included fans from the stands. Both schools' boys basketball programs were placed on two years restrictive probation and missed the 2018 postseason.

But the Board chose to give both schools a chance to eliminate the second year.

The two East Tennessee schools held sportsmanship clinics. Brainerd's team attended one held at Austin-East. The Roadrunners came to Chattanooga for one at Brainerd. 

Austin-East got into the community and volunteered at a homeless kitchen. Stanton said the team still volunteers there.

"The stuff we did was more of a community thing," Stanton said. "It gave them a chance to see a part of the community that they had never seen before. 

"They didn't know that some of their friends were homeless, or didn't have food."

Both schools had to ask permission to be eligible prior to the school year and show what they had done.

"We came into the school year not knowing if we could play (in postseason) or not," Brainerd coach Levar Brown said. "I'm proud of my kids for sticking with us."

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Schedule:TSSAA boys basketball state tournament 2019 pairings

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Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.