Centennial girls basketball forfeits 15 games due to ‘administrative error’

The Centennial girls basketball team has been forced to forfeit 15 games, including 11 wins, according to a letter obtained by the Review-Journal.

The letter, sent to Centennial parents from school principal Keith Wipperman, said the forfeitures were “due to an administrative error in reference to a student-athlete’s grades and transcripts regarding student eligibility.”

The forfeits dropped Centennial’s record to 5-17 overall and 2-6 in Class 5A Southern League play. The Bulldogs, No. 3 in the RJ’s 5A rankings, have gone from the No. 3 seed in the state tournament to the No. 7 seed.

That will set up Centennial in a state quarterfinal matchup against No. 2 Democracy Prep on Feb. 11.

When contacted by email Wednesday, Wipperman referred any request for comment to Clark County School District Communications. The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association has not returned requests for comment.

The letter from Wipperman added: “The school administration is responsible for ensuring every student on the roster meets all academic requirements. In this instance, we failed to properly track the student’s transition to the required eligibility tracks following the first quarter and first semester.

“We want to be clear: This error rests entirely with the Centennial High School athletic administration. It is our responsibility to verify the eligibility of every pupil on our rosters. We self-reported this violation once it was discovered and are now working closely with the Clark County School District (CCSD) and the NIAA to ensure this never happens again.”

‘Incompetence and evilness’

Centennial coach Karen Weitz said Wednesday the problem started when the school failed to do proper grade checks on a player who is homeschooled, dating to December, and she did not know of any issue until Saturday. She called the situation “pure incompetence and evilness.”

“CCSD and NIAA, I don’t believe that they do the right things all the time, either, even though they’re going to say that they do, because they’re going to put it back on the schools,” Weitz said. “But again, you had no system in place to check this girl that was being homeschooled. So, then we suffer the consequences for your incompetence and having no system in place.”

It’s the second straight season that a Centennial basketball team has had to forfeit games for playing an ineligible player. Last season, the Centennial boys, whom Weitz also coaches, had to forfeit 18 games for playing an ineligible player that Weitz said at the time was because of a “glitch” by the Register My Athlete system that the state uses for player eligibility.

“Just total in shock that this could happen two years in a row and people that are the head of your school can just stand up there and it’s always, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. This is our fault, and we should have known,’” Weitz said. “It’s incompetence. It’s evil. It just doesn’t look right.

“Is this coincidence again that you don’t know how to do your job until right before the playoffs with both teams?”

Weitz has coached at Centennial since 1999 and led the program to 15 state titles. She picked up her 800th high school win in December and still has 802 wins despite the forfeits.

“I don’t get it,” said Weitz, in her fourth season coaching the boys and girls teams. “You don’t have anything in place, then people should be fired or something should be happening to people, but then the kids and the coaches and the staff get punished. In 30-something years, I’ve never seen anything like this happen to a team, and I’m just baffled.”

Centennial defeated Democracy Prep 61-54 in last year’s 5A state title game. Democracy Prep edged Centennial 60-59 on Friday.

‘Very unprofessional’

Parents say they were made aware by Weitz and her staff over the weekend about a Monday morning meeting for coaches, players and administrators. Parents were not given any information about the meeting by school administrators.

Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Natalie Williams, the mother of Centennial five-star junior Nation Williams, said parents were “very upset” about the situation.

“We were just questioning procedure, like how do they turn something in without getting any information. The parents (of the player) weren’t even informed,” Natalie Williams said.

Quincy Branch, the father of senior Sanai Branch, said parents left that meeting with “more questions than we did answers.”

“The meeting didn’t go sideways, so to speak, it was a very constructive meeting, but we felt like the administration owed us some answers,” Quincy Branch said. “We didn’t get clear answers. And in some cases, we didn’t get an answer.”

Branch said the parents and players have felt every range of emotion over the past few days.

“You’ve been angry, you’ve been sad and you’ve been disappointed, but you’ve also been motivated,” Branch said.

Said Natalie Williams: “The Bulldogs are a tight-knit group. They always have been. They’re resilient. They’ll just forget the noise. … They’re going to go out and do the best they can to win the games they have left.”

Williams and Branch voiced their support for Weitz, with Williams calling the school’s handling of this “very unprofessional.”

“I don’t think anybody that was in (the Monday meeting) left there trusting that administration of Centennial High School,” Branch said. “And that’s sad.”

Said Williams: “(Weitz) does not feel the love, I can 100 percent guarantee that. I, unfortunately, would not be surprised, with this happening again, that I wouldn’t be surprised if this was her last year. It’s just really unfortunate for someone who’s done so much for not only the school but the community.”