In today's Rock Hill Herald, on the Opinion Page, the paper goes to bat for Nathan Arroyo.
Let Arroyo play soccer
Prep school athletes and their coaches must abide by league rules regarding eligibility. But a good case could be made for allowing Northwestern High School soccer player Nathan Arroyo to participate during his senior year.
According to rules established by the South Carolina High School League, high school athletes in the state are allowed eight straight semesters of eligibility once they reach the ninth grade. It's a sensible rule; without it, coaches might be tempted to coax star athletes to delay graduation and play another season.
But Arroyo's problem stems from a year he spent at a private school in Atlanta where he did not participate in athletics. Northwestern athletics director Jimmy Wallace said that, because of a clerical error, Arroyo's history as a transfer student went unnoticed until recently.
Arroyo started ninth grade at a private church school in Atlanta. After a year there, he returned to the public school system and repeated the ninth grade, where he played soccer in the spring. He moved to Rock Hill from Atlanta last year and played on Northwestern's football team as a punter in the fall and on the soccer team last spring.
Arroyo excelled at soccer. He was named Class AAAA Player of the Year last season, after scoring 46 goals and amassing 122 points. The Trojans finished 25-2 and were ranked No. 1 in Class AAAA all but one week during the regular season, and were ranked No. 1 nationally for four weeks by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
Tuesday, the SCHSL ruled that Arroyo has completed his eligibility and will not be allowed to play soccer this season. Furthermore, Northwestern will forfeit the four football games it won last fall when Arroyo took over for injured starting punter Bart Blanchard.
Technically, that ruling fits the facts. Nevertheless, we think Northwestern is justified in appealing the decision and hope the league will reverse its decision.
During the year that Arroyo attended private school, he didn't play sports. There is no evidence that he intentionally flouted eligibility rules. His parents say they made him repeat the ninth grade because they weren't satisfied with the academic progress he had shown in private school.
We don't think the league should make an exception for Arroyo because he is an outstanding athlete. The rule he violated was intended to prevent teams gaining an unfair advantage by, in effect, red-shirting players. That does not appear to have been the case here.
Banning Nathan Arroyo from playing his entire final season seems an overly harsh punishment to us.
IN SUMMARY
Because local soccer standout didn't play sports at private school, we hope league will reconsider ruling.
