Clarification
BY MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer
Friday, December 21, 2012
12/21/12 at 6:05 AM
A story in Tuesday's World Sports section concerning Tahlequah Sequoyah's dismissal of its head football coach and two athletic administrators had incorrect information about the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association investigation into the school's slowpitch softball team.
The school's 2012 Class 5A state title in slowpitch softball and the eligibility of athlete Kelsey Leach have been restored by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association.
Leach transferred from a dependent school district to Sequoyah before her ninth-grade school year and has played softball for two seasons. But when her eligibility was questioned earlier this year, the OSSAA received an address indicating that she lived in the Cave Springs district, meaning she was ineligible at Sequoyah. Her request for a retroactive hardship waiver was denied, and Sequoyah was stripped of its softball championship by the OSSAA. But upon receiving new information in November showing Leach's correct address, the OSSAA reversed itself, making Leach eligible and restoring Sequoyah's title.
"We've returned all of their awards for softball," OSSAA staff member Amy Cassell said.
The Leach case was one of "multiple" cases handled by the OSSAA involving Sequoyah over the past four years.
Executive secretary Ed Sheakley said a recommendation by the board of directors in its Nov. 7 meeting that Larry Grigg be suspended from his duties as Sequoyah athletic director stemmed from "a failure of institutional controls and several violations of it."
