Coosa Christian football out of AHSAA playoffs through 2025 season for rules violation

Coosa Christian Football will be disqualified from the playoffs after the AHSAA determines that an ineligible player played in more than the school’s reported game.

On Tuesday, Coosa Christian was forced to forfeit a win over Cleveland for violating the Coaching Outside the School Year rule. The school was also fined an undisclosed amount and placed on probation. An AHSAA investigation found the ineligible player actually played in at least five games, including wins over Cleveland, Susan Moore, Falkville, Southeastern and Cold Springs. The Conquerors will have to forfeit these wins, meaning their adjusted overall record is 4-6 for the season, and 1-5 in the region. They will miss the playoffs and the AHSAA investigation is still ongoing.

The AHSAA placed the Conquerors football program on restrictive probation until the end of the 2025 football season. That means that unless they meet the AHSAA’s specific conditions, which have not been released, they cannot compete in championships. They may try to make a statement at the Central Board meeting in July 2025.

Coosa Christian did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication from the Gadsden Times.

The Conquerors concluded their 2024 season with a 35-21 victory against Tuscaloosa Academy. They are on a nine-game winning streak on the field, but their official record is 4-6.

This is now the third time in the past two seasons that Coosa Christian has faced sanctions from the AHSAA. In 2023, it was forced to forfeit four wins due to violations of AHSAA transfer rules. The Conquerors rallied to make the playoffs and advanced to the Class 1A state title game before falling to Leroy.

Will Coosa Christian football still be in the AHSAA playoffs?

The Conquerors are eliminated from the playoffs for at least the 2024 season. They are tied for last place in Class 2A, Region 6 with West End. If they don’t meet the AHSAA’s terms, they will also be out of the 2025 playoffs.

Coosa Christian was considered a Class 2A state title favorite, especially after convincing wins over Fyffe and Tuscaloosa Academy. It was the Class 1A runner-up in 2023 and made the Class 1A semifinals in 2022. The competitive balance factor necessitated an increase last offseason when the AHSAA underwent realignment.

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What is the AHSAA’s ‘Coaching Outside the School Year’ Rule?

The rule is covered Section 15 of the AHSAA Bylaws about the competition and states: “No administrator, coach or non-faculty coach on the staff of any school shall conduct organized practices (except during the authorized period) or competition for his school or its feeder school students (grades 7-12) outside the sports season during the school year.”

A coach can coach students from his or her school in a sport that is not the sport he or she coaches for a school. There are periods throughout the year when coaches can work off-season and instruct students. A coach can coach his child in any sport and there are exceptions for Olympic level teams.

The penalty may result in the student or coach becoming ineligible. A coach could resign to make the child eligible, but the games the student played in would still be forfeited.

“Any coach who coaches a student (grades 7-12) of his/her school in practice or competition of the same sport outside of an authorized period shall cause that student or the offending coach to become ineligible for the portion in which the violation occurred before that school season.”

What happened to Coosa Christian football in 2023?

In 2023, the school was forced by the AHSAA to forfeit four of their wins on September 29, while also receiving a fine of an undisclosed amount. The punishment arose from violating the due transfer policy. The school brought in student-athletes after claiming to hire their parents as full-time athletic directors, but the AHSAA found the roles were not full-time. The school won the playoffs as a three seed and advanced to the Class 1A state title game, where they lost 28-21 to Leroy.

The controversy surrounding the Conquerors did not end after the sentence was pronounced. When they returned two weeks later to play Cedar Bluff, the game ended with a 94-7 Coosa Christian win. At the time, coach Mark O’Bryant told the Gadsden Times that the lopsided win was revenge for Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Mike Welsh. ‘sabotage’ his program. Welsh never returned a request for comment from the Gadsden Times and did hear a call from Coosa Christian as head of the AHSAA Central Board. Buses in the Gadsden area disapproved of the actions from O’Bryant after the win.

This article originally appeared in The Gadsden Times: Coosa Christian football outside the AHSAA playoffs through the 2025 season