Bishop Fenwick, MIAA Clash Over Yearlong Postseason Sports Ban

Sports Bishop Fenwick, MIAA Clash Over Yearlong Postseason Sports Ban While the Fenwick president called the harsh penalty an overreach, the MIAA accused the school of a “severe failure” of accountability. Reply
The MIAA shot back on Monday with MIAA Executive Director Robert Baldwin releasing the full transcript — with some redactions — of the process that led to the yearlong ban. (Scott Souza/Patch)
PEABODY, MA — The disconnect between Bishop Fenwick High School leadership and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association appeared to widen on Monday with the school officials calling the yearlong postseason ban for all athletes revealed Friday an overreach based on one eligibility waiver and the state’s school sports governing body backing up the decision with the release of a comprehensive overview of its “accountability” findings.
The MIAA announced late Friday afternoon that the Peabody school’s athletes will be barred from all postseason tournaments and individual competitions throughout the 2023-24 school year for what it called “serious, egregious and repeated” rules violations. School president Tom Nunan told CBS Boston this weekend that he was “baffled, surprised, stunned, disappointed” by the MIAA Board of Directors’ decision and that he believed some aspects of a fifth-year eligibility waiver for a baseball player were an oversight that did not rise to the level of this degree of discipline.
“We apologized for our inaccuracies,” he told the station, “the waiver was denied. We abided by that ruling so the student never set foot on the field and I thought the matter was closed. “This decision is affecting our entire student body regarding a situation over which they had no control and for which they bear no responsibility. Kids love sports, and families love kids who love sports. So it’s very emotional. I think also very unsettling. They’re not sure why. How could this happen? Whatever the designated crime is, the punishment doesn’t seem commensurate with it.”
But the MIAA shot back on Monday with MIAA Executive Director Robert Baldwin releasing the full transcript — with some redactions — of the process that led to the yearlong ban. The MIAA charges that Fenwick was either willfully ignorant or lied about the previous athletic history of the player for which it sought the waiver — arguing that the player the school termed as “a classic Bishop Fenwick athlete” who was not a “superstar” was, in fact, the team’s Pitcher of the Year who was being recruited by Division I colleges. The MIAA also said that information that Fenwick officials claimed not to be aware of about the athlete was easily obtained by their representatives within minutes by making a handful of phone calls.
The MIAA said the pattern of behavior stems from another waiver application for a seventh-grade player at a non-affiliated school whom the school sought to allow to play on a varsity team over at least one high school player who was cut from that team. “At the very least, Bishop Fenwick’s actions were negligent and failed to comply with its obligations to know and apply MIAA’s rules,” Baldwin’s statement said. “Moreover, this is not the first time that Bishop Fenwick has attempted to excuse a clear failure to comply with MIAA’s rules.