PIAA board upholds 2-year postseason ban against Bishop McCort wrestling; coach suspended
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Board of Appeals upheld a previous ruling by the District 6 Committee against Bishop McCort Catholic High School wrestling on Wednesday.
Ruling: Crushers barred from wrestling playoffs; all sports programs on three-year probation
Head coach Bill Bassett is suspended for two years while the wrestling program is on a two-year ban from both the individual and team postseasons. All other Bishop McCort athletic programs are on probation for three years.
"They (District 6 and PIAA) have a job to do, and they need to do what they need to do," said Bishop McCort Principal Tom Smith. "In my position, I have a job I need to do and that is stand up for my kids. I would not have taken it to this point and beyond if I did not feel that this was handled properly. I believe it was handled properly on our end. They don't, and that's where we have conflict.
"I respect the committees at all levels. We are at a disagreement with these sanctions and in some ways how the proceedings were held. We are going to continue to refute that, and we are not going to stop until we feel this is settled in the right place."
In October and November, the District 6 executive committee conducted hearings in regards to transfers and alleged recruiting at Bishop McCort. An initial one-year suspension for Bassett and a postseason ban up to three years for the program was announced last month.
Two nationally ranked eighth graders transferred to Bishop McCort this year. Jax Forrest of North Carolina and Sam Herring of Tennessee became Crushers. Bassett's son, Bo, who won a Cadet World title this summer, is also an eighth-grade student athlete at Bishop McCort.
Last season, Erik Gibson, a Cornell University commit, was ruled ineligible after transferring from Forest Hills to Bishop McCort.
Smith said Bishop McCort had 88 students transfer into the school district during the pandemic, and a large majority of those were not wrestlers.
"We pride ourselves in what we were able to do during the pandemic," Smith said. "We operated a lot differently than schools around us. We are very proud of that. It was attractive to students. Kids came here purely for academics.
"Every student that transferred in here during the pandemic was academically motivated to come here. Who am I to tell those parents differently when they tell me that their child is coming here because we have in-person learning and offer an amazing product?"
The ban is significant, and could be one of the harshest handed down to a PIAA program of any kind. Smith said the matter is not over. He said he will continue to fight for the student athletes at Bishop McCort and what he believes is right.
Smith, the administrative team and members of the school board planned to meet Thursday evening to further develop a strategy as to where Bishop McCort goes moving forward in the matter.
"In my heart of hearts, I can't lay down," Smith said. "If I felt like we did anything wrong, I would have stopped this a long time ago. We would have taken our punishment and moved on. That's not the case here.
"I am going to do whatever I have to do for these kids. I am not going to back down from my mission, which is to help our students and their families achieve their objective of allowing their children to come to Bishop McCort and not be penalized because they chose to come here for academic reasons."
Adam Ripple is the Daily American sports editor. He can be reached at 814-444-5926. Follow him on Twitter @ARipple_DAsport. Follow Daily American Sports on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: PIAA upholds suspension handed down by D6 against McCort wrestling
