With a championship season on the line, Signal Mountain High School officials hope to regain at least some of six wins taken away by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association when its appeal is heard at 9 EDT this morning in Murfreesboro.
The TSSAA ruled on Oct. 7 that the school’s football team had used an ineligible player and vacated six wins from the Eagles, who were well on their way to the District 7-AA championship and an appearance in the Class 4A playoffs.
“Is the whole issue up in the air? We think there’s enough room [for debate] where it’s worth appealing,” Dr. Tom McCullough, the Signal Mountain principal, said Wednesday afternoon.
TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress said after the governing body’s decision that athletic eligibility did not accompany a hardship granted to Tim McClendon, the player ruled ineligible, by the Hamilton County Department of Education.
McCullough believes McClendon’s eligibility should be reinstated and at least some of the vacated wins returned to the football team.