Williamsburg Christian Academy boys basketball leading scorer Dirk Williams, Jr. has been ruled athletically ineligible for the remainder of the 2012-13 season, the school announced Thursday.
WCA is slated to tip off against town rival Walsingham tonight (Thursday, December 20) at 7 at Walsingham’s Chismer Athletic Complex.
In an interview with WYDaily, WCA athletic director John Perkins said that another Metro Conference school received info last week suggesting Williams had previously used up all of his high school athletics eligibility.
The issue was then pursued with cooperation from WCA, and Perkins made the announcement Thursday that Williams was in fact athletically ineligible.
“The mistake is ours,” Perkins said. “We didn’t look into the issue as far as we should have. It was an inadvertent oversight.”
The 18 year-old transferred from Birmingham, Alabama to Jamestown High in Williamsburg during fall of last season and was ruled academically ineligible to play basketball.
Williams then decided over the summer to transfer to WCA. Perkins said the school received paperwork from Williams’ previous school stating that he was academically a junior, and thus “assumed” he was eligible to compete athletically. In fact, Williams had already participated in eight semesters of high school athletics.
“This is just a unique and unfortunate circumstance,” Perkins said. “Dirk is a great kid who has been a huge lift for our basketball team and a great addition to the WCA community. We hope he decides to stay and finish out the remainder of the school season and graduate.”
As a result of Williams’ ineligibility, WCA must forfeit all contests in which the athletic 6’4 wingman participated, dropping the Eagles’ overall record from 8-2 to 0-10, and from 4-0 to 0-4 in Metro Conference play.
Williams was averaging close to 25 points and 10 rebounds per game so far this season.
