Two-time defending state champion Riverside has been sanctioned in the sport of boys basketball and fined $500 by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association for scheduling and playing extra games in the Allstate Sugar Bowl National Prep Classic tournament staged last month at the Alario Center.
Riverside was placed on disciplinary probation, had the number of tournaments it participates in next season reduced by one and was prohibited from hosting the National Prep Classic or any other tournament during the 2012-13 season, LHSAA Executive Director Kenny Henderson said Monday.
Additionally, Riverside Coach and Athletic Director Timmy Byrd was ordered to attend a LHSAA Handbook Certification class or complete the LHSAA/National Federation of High Schools Fundamentals of Coaching Course online.
The LHSAA ruling does not affect Riverside’s ability to participate in the upcoming Class 2A state playoffs, Henderson said. It also does not affect the four victories the Rebels recorded while playing in an additional bracket in the National Prep Classic that was staged outside of the Riverside-hosted tournament’s championship bracket.
The sanctions do not prohibit Riverside from participating in the 2013 National Prep Classic, Henderson said. It just cannot serve as the host school.
Henderson issued Riverside’s sanctions Friday following a meeting at LHSAA headquarters in Baton Rouge with Byrd, Riverside Principal Perry DiCarlo and girls Athletic Director Kristy Hebert.
The LHSAA began investigating the matter, Henderson said, after being contacted by several member schools questioning Riverside scheduling four additional games for itself in the tournament in addition to the championship bracket.
Henderson ruled that the single-game bracket Riverside added to the National Prep Classic constituted a separate tournament and increased the Reserve school’s tournament participation to five, one more than the LHSAA limit.
“The problem in this whole thing is that you had this single-game tournament and an elimination bracket (all going on) in the tournament,’ Henderson said. “It was two separate tournaments. The set up of the tournament is not the issue. The fact (Riverside) played in both tournaments is the issue.’
Byrd, who was upset by the ruling, said that Riverside will not appeal the sanctions.
“We’re disappointed in his ruling,’ Byrd said. “We didn’t hide anything. There is nothing in writing (in the LHSAA rules) that says you can’t play in two brackets in a tournament. The fact of the matter is that this ruling is an interpretation by (Henderson). (Henderson) has elected to decide that a bracket constitutes an additional tournament.
“That’s not what the rule says. That’s an interpretation. I’m disappointed that (Henderson) interpreted the rule. Why penalize us if there is no rule for it?’
The lone written rule in the LHSAA handbook regarding tournaments states that members are prohibited from playing more than three games in one day and cannot play in separate tournaments simultaneously.’ Riverside did not exceed the three-game daily limit in the National Prep Classic.
The additional four games Riverside added to its schedule in the National Prep Classic helped the Rebels satisfy a LHSAA mandate requiring member schools to play 20 games against instate competition in order to qualify for the playoffs as a wild card and be seeded among the top 32 teams.
Teams not playing 20 instate games can advance to the playoffs if they finish first or second in their district, but then are placed at the bottom of the bracket.
Byrd said he scheduled the additional games in the National Prep Classic about a month prior to the tournament to avoid Riverside’s perennial power of a program from adversely affecting the bracket as a bottom seed that might be matched against a No. 1 seed.
Riverside, 25-9, currently is ranked third in the Class 2A state poll behind District 10-2A rival Curtis and Mansfield.
Byrd said that he initially was told mistakenly by LHSAA officials that Riverside had to win its district rather than finish first or second in order to secure a place in the playoffs and that the LHSAA suggested he play more instate teams in the National Prep Classic as a solution.
“We discussed that (Friday) and there were some questions and disagreements to that,’ Henderson said. “Anything official has to be in writing. Anything else is an opinion and there definitely was nothing official in writing (issued).’
