September 5, 2012

Matt Stepp
TheOldCoach.com

The interesting initial saga of Prime Prep and their eligibility questions came to a head today in Dallas during the District 11-3A Executive Committee Meeting.

After an emotionally charged meeting a few weeks ago, the committee heard from D.L. Wallace and other leaders at Prime Prep regarding the future of Prime Prep athletics in the 2012-2013 school year.

As expected and reported first by NBC 5 News in Dallas, Prime Prep has stated they will not have enough eligible varsity athletes to participate in football or volleyball for the 2012 season. This comes as no surprise after interim AD Cleveland Starr said as much during the previous DEC meeting.

The most interesting caveat regarding Prime Prep will be the status of their boys basketball program, which has already garnered national attention. Prime Prep made a huge off-season splash with the hiring of highly successful Grace Prep HC Ray Forsett. The real hot button issue now is the transfer of several highly touted prospects from Grace Prep to Prime Prep, which on paper could give the first year school a national powerhouse type basketball squad.

The ruling by the DEC to ban all varsity sports was a controversial one and was unprecedented. No DEC has the authority to take such action, so it was a surprise when that ruling was announced. In speaking with a source on the DEC executive committee, it's clear that rhetoric has been toned down. "As of right now, Prime Prep will have all varsity sports other than football and volleyball, tennis, golf, cross country and softball provided they can field enough eligible players to field a team. We will review each sport on an individual basis and make a ruling on eligibility based on the PAPF forms," said the source on the DEC.

Regarding boys basketball and their status for this school year, Prime Prep has until September 24 to turn in the PAPF forms to the DEC for review. At that point a ruling will be made regarding if Prime Prep can compete for UIL honors based on the number of eligible student athletes. You can bet with as many high profile transfers as Prime Prep has received, each PAPF will be heavily scrutinized by the DEC.

In regards to football, as was reported several weeks ago due to Prime Prep not being able to meet their obligation to field a varsity football team in 2012, the 11-3A DEC will meet in the spring to vote on if they will reinstate Prime Prep for the 2013 season. In order to be reinstated and compete for district honors, the vote on the 11-3A must be unanimous. One no vote means it will be until 2014 before Prime Prep is eligible for the playoffs or a district championship.

Stay with THEOLDCOACH for more updates and discuss today's ruling on our message boards!

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