Columnist Spencer Patterson: Latest ineligible-player incident casts shadow on Las Vegas High

Spencer Patterson's prep sports column appears Thursday. Reach him at 259-4085 or [email protected]

As the old saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

School district officials would be wise to keep that in mind as they investigate the latest episode of athletic impropriety at Las Vegas High School.

This week, the school forfeited three boys soccer games (one win and two ties) for using an academically ineligible player. If this sounds eerily familiar, it should: nearly one year ago, the Wildcat football team missed out on the playoffs for a similar transgression by the LVHS administration.

This time, the school is chalking the incident up to a clerical error, claiming that administrators miscalculated the student's grade-point-average.

"(Our school) miscalcuated a grade for a student," said Wildcats soccer coach Ron Fick. "As soon as they discovered the mistake, they came to me and apologized."

Certainly, mistakes do happen, and this one may indeed have been an honest one. But after the devastating blow dealt to last year's football team, you would think that at Las Vegas High, of all places, administrators would be taking extra care to check their math.

It also raises the possibility that the school is making exceptions for its star athletes -- a theory already making the rounds among area coaches in the wake of this incident.

For the Las Vegas soccer team, the forfeits themselves are hardly costly. They come well before the start of the conference season, meaning the three losses will not affect the Wildcats' playoff chances.

But the situation has already proved very expensive for two involved parties: the student-athlete and the school itself.

The student, a senior, must now come to grips with the harsh reality that his high school career is all but over (he could be eligible to return for the season's final game and the playoffs). And while he is certainly responsible for his own grades, this is a bitter pill to swallow just weeks after school officials cleared him to play.

And for Las Vegas High, the incident not only deals another blow to the school's reputation, it also could taint the future accomplishments of all of the campus' hard-working student-athletes.

* POLL WATCHING: In the wake of two major upsets in the state's northern half, Las Vegas High rises to the top of this week's Sun state-wide prep football poll for the first time this season.

McQueen, ranked No. 1 since the preseason, fell 29-28, at California's Granite Bay, a Sacramento-area High School on Friday night. Meanwhile, then-No. 2 Reed lost at home to Elko, 17-9.

The Wildcats, ranked No. 3 last week, have dominated their four opponents thus far, outscoring Desert Pines, Delta (Utah), Eldorado and Green Valley by a combined 199-48 score.

Elko moves into the No. 2 slot this week, followed by McQueen and undefeated Cimarron-Memorial. Reed rounds out the top five, followed by 4-0 Durango and Wooster, which routed Churchill County 54-24 last week.

This week's poll also marks the debut of Silverado, which enters the rankings at No. 8 with a 4-0 record. Cheyenne and South Tahoe, an 18-17 loser to Hug last week, are ranked Nos. 9 and 10, respectively.

* POLL WATCHING, TAKE TWO: Bonanza's boys and Green Valley's girls sit atop the first-ever state-wide cross country polls, voted on by Nevada coaches this week.

Trailing the Bengals in the boys poll are: Reno, Durango, Basic, Green Valley, South Tahoe, Boulder City, Spring Creek, Carson and North Tahoe.

On the girls side, Green Valley is followed by: Reno, Reed, Durango, McQueen, Boulder City, Basic, Bonanza, Silverado and Carson.

The Bengals continue to lead the weekly Southern Nevada boys poll, while the Gator girls are ranked first for the third straight week.

* HAWAIIAN LUAU: Several of the nation's top girls volleyball teams will congregate in Las Vegas this weekend for the Maui Life Sport/Durango Fall Classic. Sixteen teams, including nationally ranked Kamehameha (Honolulu, Hawaii), Berkeley Prep (Tampa, Fla.) and Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), will participate in the event, which begins Friday at 2:30 p.m. and ends with a championship match Saturday at 7 p.m.

Admission is $5 per day for adults and $2 for students and kids.

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