District Goes to Court to Save Goose Creek Gators Postseason

• Read: District's Release on Legal Challenge to Disqualification
•  

The Goose Creek Gators' 2012 season appeared to end in a boardroom on Wednesday, instead of on the football field. On Friday morning, the Gators are taking their postseason hopes to court.

Due to an ineligible player, the South Carolina High School League pulled the Gators from round two of the 4A Division Two tournament and replaced them with Conway, the team that lost in Goose Creek last week, 48-7.

The Berkeley County School District will seek to have Goose Creek High School reinstated in the playoffs. Judge Roger Young will hear the motion on at 9 a.m. Friday in the Berkeley County Courthouse, Courtroom E.

Saying they didn't realize the student was ineligible until earlier this week, the school had sought relief from the SCHSL executive committee on Wednesday. The committee refused the school's request in a 10-1 vote. 

• Read: Gators Lose Appeal In Front of SCHSL Committee
• Read: District's Response to Lost Appeal
• Read: Chuck Reedy's Appeal to SCHSL Executive Committee

"We had all the confidence in the world," Principal Jimmy Huskey said Thursday morning of the school's argument for a hardship, considering the school self-reported the infraction and it wasn't intentional.

According to Huskey, the student was a 2012 transfer and the school was working off of a transcript that only showed three years of high school. The file was updated after the school cleared the student to play.

"You've got to stand for your children," Huskey said. "You've got to stand for your players. You've got to stand for your coaches, my athletic director and this community."

The undefeated Goose Creek Gators is ranked No. 11 nationally by USA Today and the defending state champion. They had an undefeated 12-0 season.

• Read: Goose Creek Gators Disqualified
• Read: Players and Students React to News
• Read: District Statement and Details of Appeal
• List of S.C. High School League committee members