Judge rules in favor of restoring four victories to Spring Mills (West Virginia)

It’s been quite the last couple of weeks for the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSAAC) when it comes to high school football.

On Thursday, it got a lot more interesting in a hearing held in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

According to a report by Panhandle News Network’s Clint Gaige, a judge ruled in favor of restoring four victories to Spring Mills’ football program in lieu of having been slapped with forfeits due to having ruled playing with an ineligible player.

“Your rules need to get in line with federal law, which is why I am ruling in favor of the Spring Mills injunction,” Judge McLaughlin said to the WVSSAC in Thursday’s ruling per the MetroNews report.

Spring Mills self-reported the eligibility violation of Treshawn Garmon, 18, who was enrolled as a student at the school through protections of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Per Gaige’s report, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a federal measure is aimed at protecting the educational rights of children who are homeless. The report also states the act requires a school system to remove barriers for homeless students to acquire educational opportunities, which includes extra curricular activities I.E. sports like football.

Per a MetroNews report, Garmon had moved to West Virginia back in the summer, but was wanted on charges of sexual assault back in Lee County, Georgia and was extradited back to Georgia in October to face charges of the sexual assault of a child.

Though Spring Mills now goes from 5-5 to 9-1, the team has no clue when exactly they’ll take the field for the postseason. The West Virginia high school football playoffs are officially on hold until further notice, due an injunction by Wood County regarding to the WVSSAC’s playoff formula rating.

Wood County’s injunction was upheld and four schools were displaced from the postseason brackets, which have now already seen more legal action taken by school boards which has officially delayed the WVSSAC playoffs.

“Then we would have competing injunctions. We can’t pick and choose which one we are going to follow. That would be up to a higher court to decide that. We would take a look next at what steps to take for that decision to be made. Hopefully it can be done quickly. If not, then we would have to look at possibly postponing or moving back a week or two until that decision is made. Those are all speculation at this point,” WVSSAC Executive Director David Price said in a report last week.

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— Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi