The boys basketball program at Greenwood Christian Academy has been placed on probation by the Indiana High School Athletic Association for providing an improper benefit to a prospective student-athlete.
At last week’s Executive Committee meeting, the IHSAA announced the decision to place the Cougars on probation for the 2018-19 season due to a violation of a rule that prevents providing financial assistance to a student-athlete beyond what is deemed necessary.
IHSAA commissioner Bobby Cox said that he doesn’t expect Greenwood Christian’s postseason eligibility to be affected by the current case, in large part because the violation was self-reported by school Principal Angelique Randall and because the school has cooperated fully with the IHSAA’s investigation.
He did, however, stress that the violation was a serious one — that Greenwood Christian, a private school of 180 students that has been competing as a full IHSAA member since the 2006-07 school year, provided an improper benefit to an incoming student who would not have received the same benefit were he not a gifted basketball player. The player is Oluwaseyi “Timothy” Adeyeloye, a transfer student.
“(Adeyeloye) didn’t come here just to study at Greenwood Christian Academy and not play basketball,” Cox said. “He is a legitimate Division I basketball player.”
“If that’s all done properly, then we don’t have any issues. … In this case, tuition was paid and wasn’t vetted.”
On Tuesday evening, the school’s interim Head of School partner Denny Towles, with the advisory council of the school’s board of directors, released a statement that said that athletic director Sue Tameling did not permit the student to participate in any sports, his name was never on a roster and he has not worn a team uniform.
The statement said that an international student applied and was admitted to the school in April 2018. The student had told the school that his previous homestay was no longer available, and he and his family wanted him to remain in an American Christian school environment. The student did discuss some previous extracurricular participation in athletics, but no intentions regarding athletics at Greenwood Christian Academy were divulged, the statement said.
But in July, when Tameling was working to confirm his IHSAA eligibility, the school learned that it had been given conflicting information during the student’s admission process. The administrators immediately reported the information to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, which is operated by Homeland Security. The information in question was the student’s statements that were given to gain admission to Greenwood Christian Academy.
At issue was the student’s status as either an exchange student, or a student who was staying for a longer duration. Adeyeloye was an F1 student, meaning that he was staying for a longer duration, and therefore was not eligible for any scholarship, the statement said. Interim Head of School partner Brian Hudson handled the student’s admission as a shorter duration exchange student, and assumed a scholarship was permitted. He was given a partial scholarship, the statement said.
“Monies that were erroneously donated for this scholarship were immediately removed from the account,” the statement said. “Furthermore, Mr. Hudson and Ms. Tameling immediately called the IHSAA as soon as it was learned that scholarship money had been placed into his account.”
The student will be withdrawn from Greenwood Christian Academy at the end of this semester, the statement said.
Rule 20-4 in the IHSAA bylaws states in part that “all funds for or adjustments to tuition, room and board must be awarded under an objectively determined, need-based financial aid program” and that any variation from that constitutes a form of undue influence and violates this rule.
The rule adds that “variance from the recommendations may be made, provided the variance is consistently applied on a program-wide basis.”
According to the minutes from the Dec. 11 meeting of its Executive Committee, the IHSAA determined that GCA provided improper tuition benefits to Adeyeloye. Adeyeloye was ruled ineligible to play basketball for the Cougars this season, and the school was required to provide full financial assistance records for all of its student-athletes, including third-party determinations of financial aid and sources of tuition payments beyond what was paid directly by parents or guardians.
Cox said that Greenwood Christian has already provided all of those materials, which are in the process of being reviewed.
Probation cases are fairly uncommon in Indiana high school sports, but teams in four other sports across the state have been placed on probation for various reasons over the past year and a half. The IHSAA’s version of probation is not as strong a punishment as what collegiate sports fans might be familiar with from the NCAA; rather, it’s defined as a more severe type of warning that allows a team to complete its regular schedule and compete in state tournaments after filing a written report with the commissioner’s office detailing the disciplinary or corrective action taken.
The girls basketball teams at Hammond and Gary 21st Century are currently on probation after an on-court confrontation earlier this month.
In boys basketball, the most recent case involved Bowman Academy, which was placed on probation after repeated serious violations by the basketball program and school administration. The Eagles are once again eligible for state tournament play this season after a mandated two-year absence.
