Salisbury Post Online:

August 29, 2001

South Iredell forfeits football victory over West

BY STEVE HANF

SALISBURY POST

The numbers moved from one column to the other, but the taste of a stinging defeat and the thrill of an emotional win remain the same.

South Iredell High School called the N.C. High School Athletic Association first thing Monday morning with disheartening news: It used an ineligible football player in Friday night’s 21-14 victory over West Rowan.

The result? A South loss the Vikings aren’t too worried about and a West win the Falcons aren’t eager to claim.

“It’s not a real good way to win a game,”said subdued West head coach Scott Young. “I don’t want to win too many more that way.”

The player in question, Tim Sturdivant, transferred from Mooresville High School last year and met all the attendance and grade guidelines, said South head coach Kent Millsaps. It wasn’t until Saturday morning, when Millsaps was going through some paperwork, that he realized Sturdivant was a fifth-year senior.

“It was an honest mistake,”Millsaps said. “They (NCHSAA) were sympathetic and appreciated us calling first thing.”

But, rules stipulate a team that even dresses an ineligible student-athlete — whether or not he plays — must forfeit the game. So it goes into the record books as West Rowan 1, South Iredell 0.

“It happens a couple times a year,”said Rick Strunk, associate executive director of the NCHSAA. “We have 343 schools, most of them have football. With the volume of kids involved, one might slip through from time to time. Usually this kind of thing is ferreted out before this happens.”

Sturdivant only played in the secondary Friday night. He registered one pass deflection late in the third quarter, knocking away a long pass from Gary Scott to Horatio Everhart. Four plays later, the Falcons scored anyway and took a 14-13 lead.

South Iredell answered on its next possession, though, and held on for a happy ending on an emotional night. Prior to the game, the Vikings retired the jersey of Ryan Sobiech, who was killed in a March car accident.

Millsaps didn’t enjoy breaking the news to his players.

“For about five minutes they were disappointed, then they went out and had a good practice,”he said. “They understand they won that game regardless.”

Millsaps also called Young, who told the Falcons about their new-found victory.

“They were pretty low-key: ‘Oh well, we should have played better to start with and won it outright,’ ” Young said. “I told them yesterday they lost on the field, they saw how lousy we played on film and how much we have to get better to compete with the rest of our schedule.”

The loss Friday night came as a huge disappointment to West Rowan, expected to contend in the county and the new 3A North Piedmont Conference.

“It could be good for our guys. Maybe it’ll help us in the long run,”Young said. “We can use that game as a teaching tool and even though we lost it on the field, we didn’t officially lose it.”

Perhaps the best news of all is that, since Friday’s opener was an endowment game —an exhibition of sorts with proceeds going to both schools as well as the NCHSAA — the win and the loss won’t change anything come playoff time.

Endowment games are counted in the standings, but thrown out for playoff seeding and positioning.

“It wouldn’t have mattered either way,”Young said.

Added Millsaps, “It’s nice to be able to say we’re still 0-0, but I never want be in that situation again.”