More than 70 New York City high school basketball teams were forced to forfeit their first games of the season because rosters were not posted by the strict new deadline.
Seventy-four public school athletic league teams were fined after failing to meet the new November 18 cutoff. An earlier time limit was imposed this season following a cheating scandal last year Age Limit and Educational Qualification,
On Friday, after widespread outcry in the sports community, the league began reinstating some games.
Previously teams were not required to upload their rosters to the PSAL website until one week before their first game.
The 14-game PSAL season begins next week for some schools, but for others, the first league games won’t be until Dec. 3.
“They have bigger fish to fry in the PSAL than the coaches who got their rosters 24 hours late,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt HS boys varsity coach Glenn Thomas told The Post. “The ones who are being hurt the most are our children.”
However, action on fraud is welcomed.
“I think it’s good that they’re coming and trying to organize PSAL,” Thomas said.
He said the early deadline makes it difficult for some schools, who have to wait for the fall sports season to end before students are free to try out for basketball and coaches may make cuts. Players also have to submit medical and parental consent forms and fees, which take time to collect.
Long live Benjamin N. Cardozo High School Coaches Ron Naclerio Said that there should have been a grace period for the new roster rule.
“Coaches tried, many succeeded, (some) failed because they didn’t show any courtesy until the next day,” he told The Post.
Naclerio said coaches could lose four hours of pay for each game — about $250.
The league, which includes nearly 700 basketball teams, is working to restore first games for about half of the penalized teams who applied shortly after the deadline and met other requirements. Chalkbeat.
(Tags to translate)Metro(T)US News(T)Coaches(T)High School Basketball(T)High School Sports(T)PSAL
