Schools

Milton's Eagles Banned from Basketball Tournaments This Season

The boys basketball team can't play in region and state tournaments this season, and the school was fined for "undue influence" toward students transferring to the school.

Milton High School lost its boys basketball coach, David Boyd, and now the team has lost any chance to be in the state tournament this season.

"The Georgia High School Association has placed the boys’ basketball program at Milton High School on probation for the 2012-13 season for violating GHSA rules in regard to 'undue influence',” GHSA reported on its website earlier today, Oct. 9.

The team will not be eligible to participate in the region tournament or the state tournament.

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The program will be on "Severe Warning Status" during the next school year, but it will be eligible for post-season play in the 2013-2014 season. Milton High also had to pay an undisclosed fine.

Boyd resigned Sept. 10 after the allegations surfaced.

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"Undue influence" is defined as things done by one or more people associated directly or indirectly with a GHSA school to induce or facilitate a student's transfer to that school. It can occur even with no evidence of recruitment.

No school personnel started the conversation about transferring schools, but they did engage in actions that induced and/or facilitated the transfer.

No evidence was found that former Milton Coach David Boyd initiated contact with prospective transfer students and/or their parents or guardians, the GHSA news release said.

"This investigation found no evidence that any of the transfer students mentioned in this matter had failed to have a bona fide move into the Milton service area," the release said. "Therefore, all the students mentioned in this investigation are eligible to compete at the varsity level in the upcoming 2012-13 season."

But they won't be able to take part in region or state tournaments.

Some of the undue influence issues involved:

  • Using summer workouts as a way to evaluate the talents of non-students who were considering transferring to Milton,
  • Facilitating the housing arrangements of families moving into the area,
  • Offering help with communication about a student’s collegiate possibilities before the player was a student at Milton.

The release said these penalties only cover the issues that were discovered during the recent investigation and submitted to the GHSA office.

"Any other discovery of past violations or any future violations could result in additional penalties," the GHSA release said.

According to the Milton Eagles basketball website, Boyd had a record of 573-186, including  14 region titles, 12 Elite Eight’s and 10 Final Fours. He is 9-0 in those Final Fours and has gone on to win 6 State Championships. He is the only coach is state history to win 5 State titles at 4 different High Schools. The latest state titles were with Milton High in 2010 and 2012.


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