Ineligible Player Knocks Edison from Tournaments

Updated at 12:16 p.m.

A player on Edison’s boys basketball team has been ruled ineligible, forcing the school to forfeit its spot in the National District tournament championship scheduled for Friday, as well as next week’s Northern Region tournament. The Eagles also forfeit their final two wins of the regular season.

Fairfax County Public Schools Student Activities and Athletic Director Bill Curran could not release the name of the student-athlete, but said he was ruled ineligible due to issues relating to the end of the semester. His ineligibilty was not discovered until recently because of a "clerical mistake."

"Semester eligibility needs to be established," Curran said. "You have to run through all the students' grades, every student-ahtlete, and you have about six hours to do it. In looking over 400 students, a mistake was made."

Edison Coach Terry Henderson and Activities Director Berk Stoy could not be reached for comment.

Falls Church, which lost to Edison in the district semifinals, will replace the Eagles in Friday's championship game against Mount Vernon.

The ruling forces the National District to depart from the usual seeding for the region tournament. In normal situations, the district tournament champion is the one-seed from the district in the region tournament, the runner-up is the two-seed, with seeding for the third and fourth teams reverting to regular season record.

According to an official from Falls Church, the Jaguars will be the one-seed from the district if they beat Mount Vernon, but would be ranked third if they lose, with Yorktown grabbing the two-seed from the district in the region tournament.

Washington-Lee Activities Director Carol Callaway confirmed the Generals will replace Edison in next week's Northern Region tournament.

Edison had been the tournament’s top seed after winning the National District regular-season title with a 12-2 district record. The Eagles were 19-5 overall this season.