Falls Church Replaces Edison in District Championship

Updated at 12:16 p.m.

Falls Church will replace Edison in tonight's National District championship game after a player on Edison’s boys basketball team has been ruled ineligible.

The ineligibility ruling came down Thursday night, and Falls Church coach T.C. Papageorge confirmed his Jaguars will take on Mount Vernon in Friday's championship game.

The Eagles also forfeit their spot in next week's Northern Region tournament. Washington-Lee Activities Director Carol Callaway confirmed the Generals will replace Edison in regionals.

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."

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.

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.