Patuxent football loses two wins

Team uses illegal player, has to forfeit victories vs. Calvert, Leonardtown in process

Friday, Nov. 6, 2009

An already tough season for the Patuxent High School varsity football team got a little tougher this week.

The program was forced to forfeit two games after a player was discovered to be living outside Calvert County, which made him an illegal player.

Patuxent, which was a game below .500 before the forfeitures, was docked two wins — a 41-0 win over Leonardtown on Sept. 11 and a 38-17 win over Calvert on Sept. 17 — and now sits at 2-7 overall on the season. The Panthers finish their season at Eastern Tech at 7 tonight.

The action comes after a first-year varsity player's parents separated over the summer and the father moved to St. Mary's County.

The player had reportedly been living with his father. Calvert County public schools distributed a press release on the forfeitures but did not release the student's name.

Steve Crounse, Patuxent's athletic director and football coach, said it was not possible for him, the team or school officials to know about the illegal player and is upset to see the school being punished.

"My thing in all of this is I don't want [my kids] to read about their father in the paper being a cheater because that's not what we did here," Crounse said. "We are not cheaters."

In the release from Calvert County public schools, officials said the forfeiture was necessary because of the rules set forth by the Maryland Secondary School Athletic Association (MPSSAA).

The release stated that Patuxent High School was not accused of any wrongdoing.

"The state association — the MPSSAA — did not assess penalties on any of the Patuxent High School football coaching staff because they determined that there were no inappropriate actions on their part," the release stated.

As a result of the forfeitures, Calvert moves to 5-4 overall (4-3 SMAC) and Leonardtown goes to 2-7, 2-5. At 7 tonight, Calvert hosts Northern, while Leonardtown welcomes Chopticon.

"My problem with this whole situation is there's nothing to protect me and my reputation and the program's reputation and the school's reputation," Crounse said. "When a kid is a legal resident and the school recognized him as a legal resident, the county recognized him as a legal resident, and he moves and doesn't tell anyone, there's nothing to protect us in the future."

Crounse added, "You can have people and parents sign affidavits all they want, but the fact of the matter is that if [a player is] found out not to live where they're supposed to live, the state's first thing is to make teams forfeit games and that affects 40 other kids, all the coaches, the community.

"I think the rule needs to be looked at because it's not the head football coach's job to make sure where all these kids are. This is not a situation where a kid was living at my house or transferred in the middle of his high school career. He was a student in the system since the second grade, he had a car, he drove to the weight room and he came to practice.

"There was nothing that would have tipped us off when he left [the school]. And if it wasn't for a vigilant parent who wanted to disrupt things for whatever reason, no one would have ever known, including us."

Crounse said that making sure where a player lives or sleeps is not his job.

"My thing in all this is ultimately the county is responsible for making sure these kids are living where they're supposed to be," he said. "It's not the athletic director, it's not the head coach, it's the county. And if a kid is legally registered, he has all the rights and privileges of every other kid. And then it comes out two weeks later that he's not living where he's supposed to live, so now I have to go back and forfeit two games. This is going to keep happening in Calvert County until they do something about it."

Crounse is also perturbed by how he is afraid he, his team and his program will be regarded.

"We've built this program and no matter what our record is, we've played some good football here and we've worried about building character with the kids and stress character in the school," he said. "And there's going to be a shadow now because of this incident because whatever people's perception is that's what their reality is."

He also was upset with the MPSSAA's ruling.

"The MPSSAA came out and said, ‘Hey, coach, he's not going to be punished or censored because it was out of [the kid's] control," Crounse said, "but here I am talking to the paper defending my program and I don't think that's right because we don't know where a kid sleeps at night. …This was an innocent situation, in our case."

mreid@somdnews.com