The Selma Times-Journal

Some call it Karma, some call it a bad case of what goes around, but whatever spin is put on it, Sidney Lanier High School is having to forfeit football games. The Poets, who less than two weeks prior blew the whistle on Jefferson Davis, causing them to forfeit games up until their meeting with Selma High School, has had the whistle blown on them – by Jefferson Davis High School.

When asked for comment about blowing the whistle, officials at Jeff Davis High School declined and then referred all questions and comments to Tom Salter, spokesperson for the Montgomery County Board of Education.

According to Salter, there are two sets of rules.

The claims levied against Sidney-Lanier High School did have merit and as a result, the Alabama High School Athletic Association has fined the school $250 and put them on probation for a year. Lanier, Like JD will also have to forfeit victories while the ineligible player was on the field.

According to Alan Mitchell, the AHSAA’s Assistant Athletic Director, a player can become ineligible when the student-athlete transfers from one school system to another without having made a bonafide move.

According to Washington, if a player is on the sidelines, dressed to play, he is considered to have played that game whether he set foot on the field in an actual game situation or not.

While all this has been going on in the Capital City, Selma High School has been riding a rollercoaster.

Before playing Jeff Davis, they were in a three-way tie for the third and fourth slots in the standings looking at traveling to Opelika High School in the first round of the playoffs. Nearly a week later, JD was forced to forfeit games, up until their victory over Selma High School. Robert E. Lee High School and Lanier, as well as G. W. Carver High School picked up wins as a result, reshaping the regional standings. The forfeited games erased a Carver loss, moving them to No. 2 in the standing behind Prattville High School, the only school that is unaffected by the soap opera, placed Lanier and Lee in the three and four slots by way of a tie-breaker and put the Saints in the postseason ticket line for the first round.

Now, with Lanier having to forfeit football games, the Saints find themselves in better standing then before. Selma High School stands a chance of going into the playoffs for the second year in a row and going in as a No. 3 in the regional standings with a record of 6-4 with a win in Friday night’s homecoming match-up against Wilcox Central.

The Saints will be on the road in the first round of playoffs to either Opelika or Enterprise in the first round of the playoffs.