AHSAA central board upholds Coosa Christian’s original ruling after called meeting

The Alabama High School Athletic Association announced Saturday that the Central Board of Control will enforce the proposal the original eligibility decision for Coosa Christian’s football team, which saw the program forfeit five games and fall out of the Class 2A playoffs.

The announcement comes after a specially called meeting on Saturday where the Central Board heard an appeal from Coosa Christian to the AHSAA office after the program reviewed a total of five forfeited games, was fined and placed on restrictive probation Thursday.

District 6 upheld the AHSAA’s original ruling, while the Central Council upheld District 6’s decision.

The AHSAA ruled that Coosa Christian violated the Coaching Offseason Rule, with the association confirming that an ineligible student has played a total of five games this season.

Coosa Christian was forced to forfeit wins against Cleveland, Southeastern, Falkville, Susan Moore and Cold Springs, dropping the team from first place in the Class 2A, Region 6 standings to sixth, with the Conquerors losing the play- offs completely missed.

Before the ruling, Coosa Christian was 9-1 overall and 6-0 in Class 2A, Region 6; the Conquerors were ranked No. 3 in Class 2A in the latest ASWA football poll.

Coosa Christian coach Mark O’Bryant could not comment to AL.com on Saturday.

Updated Class 2A, Region 6 standings

Southeast 8-2, 6-0

Falkville 6-4, 5-1

Susan Moore 5-5, 4-2

Cold springs 5-5, 3-3

Cleveland 3-7, 2-4

*Coosa Christian 4-6, 1-5

West End 1-9, 0-6

*Five matches forfeited

The AHSAA announced earlier this week that Coosa would forfeit the win over Cleveland after the school’s original report stated that the student in question had only participated in one varsity game.

Upon further investigation it turned out that the AHSAA confirmed and announced two days later that the ineligible student played a total of five games.

A year ago, Coosa lost four wins in violation of the transfer rulealthough the Conquerors still made the playoffs, ultimately losing to Leroy in the 1A state title game.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.