The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association has reportedly lifted penalties on Melrose High School’s boys’ basketball team, including a postseason ban, stemming from an incident that took place in January.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that the decision was reached unanimously by the TSSAA board of control. The ruling officially lifts the second year of the two-year restrictive probation that had been handed down in the wake of an on-court fight between the Melrose and Wooddale basketball teams.
According to Melrose principal Taurin Hardy, who will be in his first school year this year, all of the players involved in the incident are no longer on the team, and he is seeking a new coach to lead the program.
“You want to be fair,” Hardy told the Commercial Appeal. “As a new principal, I have expectations for excellence whether it’s in the classroom, in the field or on the basketball court. People who don’t buy into your vision of the school, they have to find other opportunities at other places.”
Now that Melrose has had its penalties lifted, both schools involved in the January dustup can put the incident behind them. Wooddale had originally been subject to a two-year restrictive probation period, but was able to clear itself on appeal to the TSSAA board in the month following the incident when video showed that no Wooddale players threw a punch.
