Delaware Military Academy’s Head Coach Nick Lincoln was suspended for the remainder of the regular season after the DIAA Board of Directors found he used an ineligible player.
I did an article earlier in the week about their being a ruling coming up but I didn’t expect this.
According to WDEL.com, “DMA self-reported that they used the ineligible player (whose name WDEL will withhold due to his age) during their opening game against Howard.”
“The player was ejected from an August 26 scrimmage against St. Georges, but the school argued to the DIAA Board that there was “miscommunication” that led to him being on the field in the September 2 Howard game.”
The article continues to say, “According to Lincoln, the player was involved in an altercation where “open hand strikes” were thrown, and that the player was escorted from the St. Georges sideline over to DMA’s,
and that Head Referee Rick Jezyk told him the player was done for the day, but not ejected.”
The Board began to discuss whether the blame should go on Lincoln for not knowing the correct player was in a position to be suspended, Jeanne for misidentifying the suspended player, or even the school in general.
“What are we are teaching our kids that were on the sidelines, what are we teaching our kids who knew he’d thrown a punch but played, what are were teaching our student-athletes if we don’t address this?,” Board member Michael Rodriguez of the Board of Education asked.
In all honesty, I believe the head coach should be suspended for the whole year instead of the just the regular season their football season. He knew that the player was suspended and insisted of having him play.
Even though in the article they explained that the player at the time was wearing a #4 jersey and got ejected for throwing and landing a punch.
“The description of the scrimmage player as “DMA #4″ became the point of contention, as DMA pointed out that they used scrimmage jerseys against St. Georges, and had yet to assign the official jerseys that were used for the Howard season opener.”
“Jeanne said he received the notification of the ejection on Monday, but waited until Thursday, the day before the Howard game, to mention that the player was suspended.”
WDEL.com article continues to say, “In between those points, DMA posted their official roster on their school website, with No. 4 being listed as a different player, with the punch-throwing player having switched to a different number.”
“Jeanne and Lincoln both said that the athletic director told his coach about the suspension, but while doing so Jeanne used the name of the player wearing the No. 4 varsity roster, which turned out to not be the same player as the punch thrower.”
I love Delaware sports and DMA has always been a good school in sports and all around. I understand trying to get the upper hand anyway possible. But I find it very hard to believe that the entire DMA staff just didn’t know what was going on. I still think that they were trying to what they could do without getting caught.
But they ended up getting caught. Hopefully this is lesson for other for teams in other sports in Delaware to not cheat especially when you are dealing with children it is just not right.
