Updated Friday January 12th at 8:35 AM
The injunction that the Kithier family wanted was denied on Thursday by a Federal Judge in Detroit meaning that Thomas Kithier’s High School season is likely over as he remains ineligible for his senior year at Clarkston.
The judge sided with the MHSAA saying that the rules are the
rules and that Kithier’s Constitutional rights were not violated saying it was not a fundamental right to play High School Sports and the transfer was athletically motivated.
Kithier is a future Michigan State Basketball recruit.
The Kithier family transferred from Macomb Dakota to
Clarkston this past summer. The family said the move was for academic reasons because Macomb Dakota didn't have the courses that Kithier needs and Clarkston has them but the MHSAA found that the transfer was athletically
motivated through the "links rule" citing his AAU link with fellow Wolves and
future Spartan teammate Foster Loyer. Macomb Dakota did not sign the transfer
waiver form making Kithier immediately eligible.
The transfer rule has been extremely controversial because the rule has not been enforced most of the time.
The transfer rule has been extremely controversial because the rule has not been enforced most of the time.
Kithier’s attorneys felt bad for Thomas but the lawsuit is
far from over. “I think the judge felt bad for the situation and I think if it
was up to her she’d change things but it’s not up to her” said Steve Fishman on of Kithier's attorneys.
Fishman blamed the MHSAA for the reason why his client is
not playing. “Really the villain of this piece is the MHSAA that didn’t give a
hoot about Thomas Kithier and made a ruling to prove that they could do it basically
so no I don’t believe that there’s any other facts that we could have said that
would have changed anything. If you listen to the judge’s ruling it was based
solely on case law and a lot of case law is in this circuit and a lot of the case
law is really old.”
Ven Johnson, Kithier's other attorney said that the family was disappointed by the
outcome. “We’re working very hard on this to do everything we know how to do for
the big fella to play. Right now, all that’s happened is the judge has said I’m
not going to block the MHSAA. Now the rest of the lawsuit continues. Yes, his
season is unfortunately done unless he goes back to Dakota and that’s a
decision for he and his family to make and it’s pretty obvious to some of us.
No decision is being made right now. We’re even thinking of filing an appeal,
probably will not just because of the time involved.”
Scott Eldridge and attorney for the MHSAA said that the
league used “selective enforcement” in ruling Kithier ineligible and had the
facts the prove them. “We had three high school athletes who violated the
athletically motivated transfer rule and they imposed the same 180 school day ineligibility
ruling that included Mr. Kithier. Every State Athletic Association has rules
and those rules are enforced and a lot of times they end up in court. This has
happened for decades and is nothing terribly new to the MHSAA or any other
state athletic association.”
Eldridge concluded that it was the Loyer-Kithier connection
in AAU for All Ohio Red was the reason for the move. “That was the facts that
ended up triggering that particular rule” he concluded.
Could Congress Get Involved????
The Michigan State House according to the Detroit News is
considering getting involved in the case.
Michigan State House Representative Jim Tedder whom is a Republican
from Clarkston whom used to coach wrestling and was a former teacher said he sponsored
a bill that would stop State schools from prohibiting students from taking part
in interscholastic high school sports simply because a student transferred from
one school to the other regardless of the reason of transfer.
However, there are others that don’t want to get involved because some of them said that it isn’t well suited for the State Legislature.
However, there are others that don’t want to get involved because some of them said that it isn’t well suited for the State Legislature.
Will the Lawsuit Continue???
According to Kithier’s attorneys the answer is yes and
hopefully they can get a rule change to which transfers would be eligible to
play right away regardless if it was athletically motivated or not.
The MHSAA filed a motion in court to dismiss the case on
Tuesday.
Fishman mentoned that there are other options to WXYZ. "You go stop the next 100 people walking down the street and ask them two questions. One, do you think parents should put their kid in whatever school they want??? (open-enrollment) 99 percent of the people will say yes and if you ask them should Thomas Kithier be allowed to play??? 95 percent of the people are going to say absolutely, why not??? What difference does it make??? That's why the real problem is and maybe a legislative solution is one we have to go to."
Fishman mentoned that there are other options to WXYZ. "You go stop the next 100 people walking down the street and ask them two questions. One, do you think parents should put their kid in whatever school they want??? (open-enrollment) 99 percent of the people will say yes and if you ask them should Thomas Kithier be allowed to play??? 95 percent of the people are going to say absolutely, why not??? What difference does it make??? That's why the real problem is and maybe a legislative solution is one we have to go to."
Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest on this developing
story.
Detroit News Articles.
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