Downright Dirty Shame

Former North Farmington boys basketball player Claude Lewis, who transferred to Melvindale ABT back in December, was ruled ineligible for the rest of the season by the MHSAA this week, forcing his new team to forfeit all eight of its wins for the 2012 campaign.

Lewis, ABT's second-leading scorer, averaging 12 points and four assists per contest, never sat out the required time limit before starting to suit up for the Class C powerhouse Gators.

In fact, he never sat out at all.

Blatantly flouting the most basic of MHSAA regulations for, at the very least, the second time in the past three years, ABT's head coach and AD felt no need to report Lewis' transfer, immediately granting him eligibility mere days after he played in a game for North Farmington in the first week of the season.

The collective genius of the ABT brass were so arrogant that they had Lewis in their starting lineup a week after the transfer when the Gators matched up with Farmington in the Motor City Roundball Classic, held at Detroit Country Day smack dab in the middle of Oakland County and in front of a crowd that included his former North Farmington coaches who were there scouting the Falcons for an upcoming intra-city showdown the following week.

BRILLIANT.

And what a great example of integrity these people are setting for the teenagers in their care.

Is winning on the high school basketball floor that important?

It's exactly this kind of deliberate cheating that forced ABT to vacate its 2009 state title and that, in one way or another, is running rampant – while not as brazenly – across the state.

The MHSAA needs to get a hold of this issue soon before it careens even more out of control than the level it's at now, which is REALLY BAD!!!!

In fact, if I was the MHSAA I would inform ABT that even the slightest infraction of the rules exhibited by them at any time in the next 5 years will result in the DEATH PENALTY. That's the kind of deterrent you need to throw out there. Draw a line in the sand. Furthermore, since this is the second time in 3 years they've been caught with their hands in the cooking jar – doing the exact same thing –, I'd cancel the rest of their season. DONE and DONE!

But, hey that's just me.