Ocean Lakes Forced To Forfeit 6-0 Start
To Ocean Lakes' football team, Wednesday seemed to be just another step toward a shot at school football history.
The Dolphins had roared to a 6-0 season, one of the best in school history, and were now past the midway point of a year they hoped would end with a Beach District title and on to Eastern Region success. As the morning rolled around, the Dolphins' minds were on Friday night, when they'd attempt to stake a new claim to district supremacy with a home battle against Beach rival Green Run.
Then, from nowhere, came a lightning bolt, a shocker that could crush everything the players and coaches had worked so hard for. Perhaps no other team in Virginia Beach could stop Ocean Lakes. But a matter off the field could - and, for the time being, it has.
On Wednesday morning, Donald Robertson, the chairman of the Virginia High School League's Beach District (and principal of Salem High School), convened a district committee meeting. Early Wednesday afternoon, he released its findings.
Unanimously, the committee found that a player on Ocean Lakes' gridiron squad did not legally reside in the school's district. Ultimately, the school was ordered to forfeit all of its victories, and a fine was possible.
"Indisputably, this decision will cause anguish for the fine athletes and the larger community associated with the Ocean Lakes Dolphins," Robertson said in a statement. "The skill that the Dolphins have exhibited on the gridiron has been in a word, superb. In short, it was a heartbreaking decision to have to make - to take away the hopes that so many fine young men had of moving toward a regional, even a state, championship."
"However, if Virginia Beach is to hold to the highest standard of sportsmanship," he continued, "we cannot ignore the rules (set) by the agency that governs high school sports in this state, even when the resulting decision is painful to so many."
However, channeling the spirit that its football squad has been showing for the past few months, the school wasn't giving up the fight. Principal Cheryl Askew was expected to appeal to the decision to the state division of the Virginia High School League in Charlottesville (football coach Chris Smith said he couldn't comment on the matter). It was undetermined how long such an appeal would take at press time.
